Tamil Nadu Temple Executive Officers Federation requests State government to appoint board of trustees
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The Tamil Nadu Temple Executive Officers Federation urged the State government to appoint boards of trustees for temples under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department. According to the HR and CE Act, temples should have between three and five members in such boards, depending on their income and size.
The trustees offer advice and guidance to the executive officers in the conduct of festivals and also in the daily running of temples. “Since they are usually local people, they know the customs of the temple and it is always better to take decisions as a group,” explained an office-bearer of the Federation. In most cases, temples at present have only fit persons or thakkars in place of the trustees and in many temples they are the executive officers themselves, he added.
UPDATED: May 28, 2021 18:35 IST
Srirangam temple in Tiruchirapalli (Alamy)
On May 23, Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran asked the 44,227 temples under his control to come clean on their finances. A circular was sent out mandating that audited accounts will have to be updated on the HR&CE website from this year. “Several provisions of the HR&CE Act emphasise transparency and informing the public about the expenditure. It is in the interests of improving the administration of the temples,” he explained.
The move is a follow-up to a pre-poll promise by chief minister M.K. Stalin after doubts (and demands) were raised about temple management in the state. By digitising documents regarding properties and assets owned by temples, the government aims to make them available in the public domain. The move comes at the end of a bitter war of words between finance minister P.N.T. Palanivel Thiagarajan (PTR) and the Coimbatore