HYDERABAD: With the delay in payment of honorarium under the Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam scheme, several priests have started working as auto-rickshaw drivers, NREGS workers and others. Under the scheme, the State government will pay Rs 4,000 per month as an honorarium to the temple priest and another Rs 2,000 per month for Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam. However, the payments have been delayed by two months.
A 53-year-old Puranam Divakar Sharma, the priest at Sri Vaidyanatha Swamy temple in Nelakondapalli mandal of Khammam district, is finding it difficult to manage the show with just Rs 4,000 per month. He worked as an auto-rickshaw driver and also joined a ‘Kolatam’ team to feed his family. By doing these jobs, Sharma is getting Rs 3,000 per month. He wants the government to increase the scheme amount to Rs 30,000 per month from the existing Rs 6,000.
Speaking to TNIE, Small Temples Priests’ Association secretary A Prasad Sharma said there are 314 such small temples in the erstwhile Khammam district alone. People of all castes are working as priests in these temples but no one was happy with the paltry sum, he said.
In Sangareddy, many priests living in the rural areas of the district are turning into NREGS labourers due to delays in honorarium. Priests are complaining that every morning from 6 am to 11 am they have to perform pujas in temples and after that, they have to leave for NREGS work.
Though some of the priests were working as teachers in private schools, they are not getting salaries on time. The priests said that even if the government did not pay money regularly, they have to spend money for the maintenance of the temples.
However, Endowments Assistant Commissioner N Naveen Kumar said in Adilabad that the government deposited the money as of January this year and only two months’ honorarium was pending. Besides the existing 484 temples under the scheme, the government has received applications to include 762 more in the scheme.
Vasudevula Phani Sharma, working in Anjaneya Swamy temple in Nalgonda said that five months honorarium was pending as of January, but the government deposited three months honorarium into their accounts the last week of the month. “We are not depending on the government’s money and perform pujas and attend other functions,” Sharma said.
R Shastri, who works at the Venkateswara temple in Gandhamvari Gudem village, Nalgonda mandal, said that due to high inflation, the honorarium was not sufficient. He said that he works in the temple in the morning and evening and as a Telugu teacher in a private school during the day. He said that he would perform pujas during holidays.
Kothapally Santhosh Sharma, priest of the Hanuman temple in Peddapendyal village of Dharmasagar mandal of Hanamkonda district, said that for the past four months, they had not received the honorarium. “We are facing problems every day,” he said.
points to ponder
The State government pays Rs 4,000 per month as honorarium to the priest and another Rs 2,000 for Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam
People of all castes working as priests in these small temples but no one happy with the paltry sum
(With inputs from Khammam, Sangareddy, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Warangal and Nizamabad)