Temple Car is not Thiruther ~ but the car used by HRCE officials !!!!!

Only the Devout who regularly visits the temple  know the anguish…. It is not unique to any village temple… the malady affects almost all temples – more so, when thousands of devotees come to the temple …. More so when they contribute lakhs and crores of rupees in the Temple hundis.  WE have nobody else to blame than ourselves having allowed the Govt to manage the Temples.

For a Hindu, devotion and worship is way of life… their life revolves round the Temples ~ more around those great temples of which Alwars and Nayanmars have sung hymns… doing service at the temple, and donating their property were all for propitiation ~ and many rich people donated part of their wealth, their lands and more for Temples – constructing them and maintaining them…. People who died without progeny used to donate their property to temple – as when the temple flourished – all the neighbourhood prospered…. ‘people lived happily in places where culture and religion co-existed’…..

All tales of the past…. Now there are some temples where even daily rituals are not properly conducted… not all of them are in villages, neither – all of them not having property …. They have huge estates – only the administrators are not properly managing to derive revenue out of them.  We have HR&CE which will take over temples when revenue exceeds a set limit [the same rule does not apply to religious institutions of others !!!!] – and with the temple money – they will conduct political functions – in memory of leaders who preached atheism … why at a temple premises …. If feeding the poor is the aim – do it in the name of God – why in the name of political persons ?  have we questioned  this ??

Sadly here is a Temple  in ruins and in a most dilapidated state. A name board proclaims that Department of Archaelogy which protects 85 monuments spread all over the state is taking care ! of this temple.   It is quite unfortunate that places which had pristine glory have lost their veritable importance, are in dilapidated condition needing conservation.  It really pains to see the temple lying shattered in ruins.

Sadly, the temple precincts are poorly maintained – hygiene is not at all cared ….   in some places, the annual festivities do not take place …

In the famous Triplicane Sri Parthaswami Thirukkovil, there was this building in South Tank Square street, built for the purpose of keeping the magnificent ‘Kannadi pallakku’ – ask anybody who is over 50 there – he would have witnessed that beautiful kannadi pallakku – present condition : the one went fading due to poor maintenance but the place was converted as car park for keeping the new car of the Executive Officer of the Temple ! ~ none resisted or fighted !!!!!!!!

HR & CE and its boss Tamil Nadu Government have regularly been looting Hindu Temples of their monies for non-temple, non-Hindu purposes. Three detailed Writ Petitions have been filed by  Mr TR Ramesh as President of Indic Collective Trust and in my individual capacity questioning the transfer of funds and for reparation funds already. Sai Deepak Iyer J is to be thanked in a big way for his phenomenal efforts in creating awareness of such looting and mismanagement of Hindu Temples & endowments across the nation and for his involved efforts in arguing the core matter for the benefit of Hindus before High Courts and Supreme Court. 

With this background, read the article below that has appeared in The Hindu – titled, “PIL filed in Madras High Court accusing HR&CE Minister, Commissioner of using cars purchased using temple funds”  -  Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI, AUGUST 02, 2020 00:24 IST

Litigant trust claims that even fuel expenses are met by the temples

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court accusing the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister as well as the Commissioner of using cars purchased from the funds of the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore and the Kamakshiamman temple at Mangadu respectively.

Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha have ordered notices to the State government as well as the HR&CE Commissioner on the PIL petition filed by the Indic Collective Trust, represented by its president T.R. Ramesh. The petitioner’s counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan said temple money was being used even for fuel expenses.  The judges directed the Registry to list the case along with another PIL petition filed by Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam against a Government Order to collect Rs.10 crore of surplus funds from 20 rich temples and use it to renovate 10,000 village temples. In that case, the court had passed an interim order restraining any such expenditure.

In an affidavit filed in support of his case, Mr. Ramesh said a combined reading of Articles 25,26, 27 of the Constitution would make it clear that the State could not appropriate funds belonging to temples and other religious institutions. Hence, the trust had challenged the validity of many provisions of the HR&CE Act before the Supreme Court. Even as those cases were pending in the apex court, the HR&CE Department had been continuing to transfer temple funds without following the provisions of its own Act, the trust alleged. It claimed that funds were being diverted at the ipse dixit of the department though the law prescribes elaborate procedures such as calling for public objections.

Further stating that the HR&CE had failed to appoint trustees for around 19,000 temples in the State since 2011, the litigant trust said they were being managed by the department employees appointed as fit Persons. It insisted that the funds of such temples should be used for their essential maintenance purposes alone and not transferred at all. Mr. Rajagopalan also told the court that temple funds had been used for purchasing computers for HR&CE officials and painting their offices. He said now there was also a proposal by the State government to start a television channel using temple funds and that the trust would want to reserve its right to challenge the decision at an appropriate time.

Sad, sordid tale .. .. officials think they are bigger than God – the Executive Officer at the holy Srirangam Ranganatha Perumal koil audaciously has his official car driven on the sands of ulprakaram to reach Office – devotees rever these places with devotion as these were the places were Azhwars and Acaryas had treaded .. ..

When the thiruther of a temple has some defects, it takes years and lots of money from various Devotees to get renovated ~ HR&CE Dept never places the money collected from the same temple in repairing it – b u t, luxury cars are bought for use of Officers.

Temple Cars The Hindu article