Use temple funds for Hindus upliftment and Dalit empowerment

Nellore: Kakinada Sree Peetham seer Paripoornananda Saraswathi has demanded the endowments department to establish a professional college and hospital in every district to provide free education as well as treatment to Hindus.

He advised the department to use the revenue of A and B category temples to setup colleges and hospitals. He maintained that the revenue of temples was used for society development right from ancient times and stressed the need to continue it. He reminded that the trustees of Sri Ananta Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Trivandrum refused to touch the hidden treasure under the plea that it is public property.

He suggested the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to take the initiative to set up educational institutes while referring to crores of rupees being spent by the organisation to spread Hindu culture through Dharma Prachara Parishat.

Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, the seer pointed to an engineering college being run by Srikalahastiswara Swamy temple at Srikalahasti while suggesting endowment wing to follow the model and set up colleges and hospitals in every district.

Referring to Dalita Govindam programme of TTD, he suggested the devasthanam to arrange free darshan to Dalits across the state to nurture Hindu culture among them and prevent them from migrating to other religions.

“TTD should arrange two buses from each district to pick up Dalits from their colonies once in a week and drop them back after darshan. They should also post SC, ST, BC’s, who have been trained to perform puja by TTD, in the temples in SC/ST colonies wherever priests are not available. Dharma Pracharaks should be posted in all the 1,120 mandals in the state to create awareness among people living in rural areas on Hindu culture. The Pracharaks should encourage mass participation in traditional festivals to bring unity among the villagers” the seer asserted.

Sri Paripoornananda Swamy expressed concern over granting permission for slaughterhouses and allowing slaughter of cows despite ban. He said that cow slaughter is responsible for farmers’ suicides as well as all bad things happening in the state. He attributed the prosperity and all-round growth in Gujarat to strict ban on cow-slaughter.

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