ChennaiOne hour agoWriter: Ritesh Ranjan
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Another state government in India is following the ‘Mandir Marg’. The DMK government of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has encroached upon 4,500 acres of land belonging to about 44,000 temples in the state during the last two years. The value of this land is said to be around 4200 crores. Along with this, breakfast has also been started to the devotees visiting 11 big temples of the state.
Selected 11 temples of Tamil Nadu, in which 1.5 lakh people visit daily
These temples include the Periapalayam Bhavani Amman Temple, the Parameshwari Temple and the Annamalai Temple. More than 1.5 lakh devotees visit these 11 temples of the state daily. The DMK government has started mid-day nutrition in about 3,000 schools run by temples.
In such a situation, the ruling DMK government, which describes itself as a rationalist beyond religious appeasement, does not want to give any chance to other right-wing parties, including the BJP, to gain a foothold in the state on issues related to temples. The vote share of the BJP, which got 2.6 per cent votes in the 2021 assembly elections, has gone up to 5.41 per cent in the 2022 urban body elections. For the first time, 308 candidates of BJP won. Only 118 candidates of BJP had won in the last civic elections.
340 crore fund for the renovation of temples
The DMK government has kept a fund of Rs 340 crore for the restoration of 1000 year old temples. Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department Minister Sekhar Babu has formed a separate team for the renovation project. However, Nataraja Shastri, the chief priest of the Kanchipuram temple, says that the salaries of the temple staff have not increased.
In fact, BJP, opposition parties and some other Hinduist organizations have been prominently raising the issue of encroachment on temple land and facilities in temple schools in the state for some time now.