NEW DELHI: Referring to the Secular ethos of the constitution, Parvesh Verma, the member of parliament from west Delhi on Monday wrote a letter to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanding the same salary for priests and granthis as the maulvis. “On the lines of the salary provided to the Maulvis of mosques, all the pujaris and granthis must also be provided with a consolidated salary of Rs 42, 000 per month.” wrote Verma in his letter.
MP also urged all pujaris and granthis to write to Delhi CM regarding this and asked them to prohibit AAP’s candidates to enter the temples and gurudwaras for the campaign until their demands are met.
Verma alleged that this non-uniformity in the salary is against the secular ethos of the constitution and wrote, “public money collected from taxpayers shall not be spent selectively on any one religious group; leaving others”. Kejriwal must end this discrimination started by his government, he added.
In 2019, the Delhi government increased the salary of imams to Rs 18,000 per month from Rs 10,000. Whereas the salary of helpers increased to Rs 16,000 per month. In 2021, hundreds of priests from temples of south Delhi staged a demonstration outside Kejriwal’s house demanding salaries.