Minister Ramalinga Reddy distributes incentive money and grants for education of priests and temple employees children

The Minister for Transport and Muzrai, Ramalinga Reddy initiated the program for the distribution of incentive money and grant for the education of the children of priests and temple employees who are on duty in the notified temples of C category and to deposit the annuity money directly into the accounts of the priests.

The Minister distributed a scholarship of Rs 4,88,000 to 33 students belonging to Bangalore city and rural district and Rs 2 lakh each to the families of two priests for a total of Rs 4 lakh. Further, a total of 158 students of 7 districts of the state were sanctioned a scholarship of Rs 20,09,000.

A bill has been sent to the Governor for approval to increase the amount of general collection fund for the purpose of spending more grants for the development of C category temples and the welfare of priests. Governor's office has asked to provide some clarifications, accordingly a detailed explanation has been given and the approval of the bill is awaited.

The said bill has already been introduced and discussed in the legislative bodies and has been passed with amendments. An outline has already been prepared for framing the following scheme for the welfare of priests/employees of the temples out of the general collection fund which will be raised soon after the approval of the Governor.

Also, Rs 5 lakh grant released to 1500 'C' category temples every year. Providing scholarships to at least 3000 children of priests/employees every year. Rs 5 lakh financial assistance towards providing accommodation to 1000 priests/employees every year. This fund allocation and other important projects have been prepared to pay the insurance scheme premium of Rs 5 lakh to all priests/employees.

On this occasion, presidents of various priest associations such as Srivatsa, Venkatachaliah and KSN Dixit said that there are 34,564 temples belonging to the religious endowment department in the state, including 34,166 C category temples. It will be convenient. Since no one cares about us till now, there is no development of temple priests/employees. This bill is a source of hope for us, but the fact that the governor has not signed the bill so far has hurt the sentiments of thousands of priests/employees performing divine work, and said that the governor is hopeful of signing the bill soon.

"The Minister Ramalinga Reddy appealed to all the eligible priests of the state to make use of this facility every year by creating more awareness about the fact that the scholarship and death grant are being paid practically today. He said that the various demands of the priests will be discussed at the government level and implemented step by step.

On this occasion, Commissioner of Religious Endowment Department Dr. MV Venkatesh, State Religious Council members Dr. BS Dhwaraknath, KM Nagaraju, Mallika Prashantha Pakkala and Vinayak District Religious Council members representatives of various priest associations were present.