‘Government is bound to finish off Hindu temples’

 99% TDB employees corrupt, says Sudhakaran

Pioneer News Service | Thiruvananthapuram

The State Minister for Dewaswom and CPI(M) leader G Sudhakaran seems not to have controlled his tongue even after stringent warnings from the LDF not to rake up the issue in public.

The Minister, while talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, said that the two Dewaswom members were getting the support of officials in the Board and added that almost 99 per cent of the employees in Travancore Dewaswom Board were corrupt.

The Minister and the two members – Sumathikutty Amma, the RSP nominee and P Narayanan, the CPI nominee – are at loggerheads ever since the new Dewaswom Board was posted last year. In the three member Dewaswom Board, which is a powerful organisation controlling the functions of around 1,290 temples including Sabarimala Ayyappa Swami temple, the Minister is accused of having supported the Dewaswom president CK Guptan.

The Minister had the other day called upon the members to resign from their posts and that Guptan has already expressed his willingness to resign from the post. The members are however continuing with the blessings of the respective political parties which had nominated them.

The CPI State secretary and veteran leader Veliyam Bhargavan called Sudhakaran an immature fool. The Minister was also lambasted from several corners including from within the LDF, for the open mudslinging in the TDB.

The rift between the members and the president has reached a flashpoint with the members even moving the High Court for calling the Board meeting. However, an adamant president is not willing to do so.

There are wide criticisms that the support extended by the Minister to president Guptan has empowered the later to behave according to his whims and fancies thus bringing the administration of the temples and the Dewaswom at a standstill.

The CPI(M) which has now entered into the administrative committees of several temples is now at a loss before the public as the open spat and the issues amongst the members has taken its toll on the temple festivals in South Kerala.

The rules of the TDB are stringent in that the Board has to sanction even minute details of the money to be expended in these temples during the festivals. As there are strict audits, the temple office-bearers are also not in a position to spend money from their pockets.

People of the areas in which these temples are situated are sore that the Left Government is taking things related to the temples much slowly and allegations are already raised as the Minister and the Board members including the president are showing step-motherly treatment to the temples of the State.

Mohan Nair, a Hindu religious believer, while talking to The Pioneer from Kottayam said, “Whenever an LDF Government is in power in Kerala, all these issues resurface and it seems that this Government is bound to finish off Hindu temples as one could see how poorly the festivals are organised in temples. This is only because of the infighting among the members and the president of the Dewaswom Board and the Minister blatantly taking one position.”

Sources in the TDB told The Pioneer that this is the situation in almost all the temples in South Kerala were festivals are being conducted with the people showing open resent at the callous manner in which the issue is being handled by the Government.

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