The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Restructure welfare board: temple priests

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Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Restructure welfare board: temple priests

Staff Reporter

KRISHNAGIRI: Tamil Nadu Temple Priests’ Association has demanded the restructuring of the welfare board constituted by the State Government two years back. Influential people were made members of the board, association State president P. Vaasu said here on Monday.

He was in Krishnagiri to attend the district consultative meeting. In a resolution passed in the meeting the welfare board constituted by the State Government, did not have enough representation of real priests. No priests from Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Salem and Erode were accommodated.

Training conducted by the association for priests should be given subsidy.

Ration cards Temples located in villages and remote place where one-time pooja was performed should be given Ration Cards, so that they can buy rice under the Re. 1 scheme.

Surrounding lands of village temples should be earmarked and patta issued to the temples. At many places temple lands were encroached by local bigwigs. These encroachments should be removed.

The association asked the Government to increase the pension from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1,500 and the same should be extended to spouses of the priests in the event of deaths. Pension scheme should be implemented in government-controlled temples.

Government should immediately intervene and stop evicting priests who were cultivating on temple land for the last several years.

Government share to the welfare board should be increased to Rs. 50 lakhs from the present Rs. 10 lakhs since it was not enough to provide welfare assistance to the 34,000 members.

The priests who are being trained at government-run training centers should be given employment in major temples in the State. All village priests should be given Rs. 1,000 a month.

The third State conference of the association will be held at Samayapuram temple on February 14.

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