UDUPI: Minister for Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Kota Srinivas Poojary has made it clear that the state government has no intention of taking over the administration of privately-managed temples.
Rubbishing rumours, he told reporters that the then state government in 2011 had passed an order to register private temples under the Endowments Act.
The government in 2015 had ordered for mandatory registering of privately-managed temples. Accordingly, every year a reminder is sent to such temples.
“But, I have given instructions to stop sending such reminders to temples as it is causing confusion,” he said.
On Sapthapadi, a mass marriage programme initiated by his department, he said that they had received 1,500 applications for the scheme before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most of the marriages have been performed by the department. More applications have been received during the pandemic, he said.
“Officials have been asked to fix 4-5 muhurats every month and conduct the marriages. Five, six and six muhurats have been fixed in March, April and May respectively,” he said.