Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 12: Karnataka State Religious Council has justified the action of the government in withdrawing grants which were being released from out of funds of a temple falling under the department of religious endowments, to two schools under the administration of organizations administered by Kalladka Prabhkar Bhat.

Members of the council, Padmanabha Kotian and Jagannivas Rao, addressed a press conference on this issue at Circuit House in the city on Saturday August 12. They claimed that grants were found to have been released illegally from temples functioning under the department of religious endowments to a number of privately run schools.

"All this is being stopped one by one. For example, last year, grant being given to Saraswathi School, Kadaba, had been withdrawn. At that time, no one had opposed the move, nor were any protests held. The religious council, in stopping this grant, was not guided by the fact that these schools are being run by Prabhakar Bhat. The process had been set rolling about a year back, and the decision is being implemented now," they sought to clarify.

They further explained that religious endowments department had drafted clearcut policy for release of grants, but accused the previous BJP regime of getting the grants released illegally by bringing pressure on officers of the department without taking care to change even the policy governing the grants to suit these decisions. They stated that an investigation will be held into the issue and guilty officials will be acted against, including recovery of funds wrongly released from them.

Jagan Chowta and Mithun Suvarna, district committee members of the council, were present.