THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) incurred a total of Rs 678 crore as expense for the running of all the temples under it, including in the Rs 487 crore spent as wages and pension of devaswom employees in the last financial year, said Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran.
The board fetched a revenue of Rs 683 crore from the temples in 2017-18, including the Rs 342 crore from Sabarimala, from hundi collections, offering, auction and bookstalls.
Out of the 1,249 temples under the TDB, revenue is being generated from only 61 temples and 1,188 temples are run using the fund generated from these 61 temples. Out of the Rs 342 crore generated from Sabarimala, Rs 73 crore was spent in Sabarimala itself, the minister said.
The wage of employees in the TDB alone constitutes Rs 354 crore and pension comes to Rs 133 crore.
The TDB made public the details of the income and expense in the backdrop of the campaign that the revenue being generated from the temples under the TDB was diverted by the state government.
The balance amount of the devaswom revenue is kept as a reserve and the state government will not make use of this fund, the minister said.
Instead, the state devaswom board has given Rs 70 crore to various devaswom boards in the state last year.
This is apart from the crores being spent for developing infra facilities by the PWD and Water Resources Departments, the minister said, adding people should realise the truth and not be misled by false propaganda.