Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, May 27: Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner (DC), A B Ibrahim, instructed sub-committees comprising concerned assistant commissioner and executive officers of the respective temples to submit report to the district level committee before June 15 towards fixing of uniform minimum wages to employees working inside and outside the temple premises.

He was addressing a meeting held in the auditorium of his office on Tuesday May 26 for fixing uniform pay for staff working in different temples falling under muzrai department.

'The employees discharging duties as hereditary priests and other work have to declare through the respective competent authorities as to whether they are doing this profession on the basis of heredity or not. The temple staff pattern should be based on the grades of respective temples,' he instructed.

The DC said that it needs to be examined whether the staff conform to the norms set out in Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Religious Endowments Act 1997 for the pay scales referred therein. If the services of these employees are regularized, the annual financial burden should be assessed, and report should contain statistics and clear opinion about absorbing them on regular service. A four-member committee headed by the DC has been formed by the government through an order for the purpose, informed additional DC, Sadashiva Prabhu.

Assistant commissioner in muzrai department, Prabhakar, informed that 491 temples in the district fall under his department, which are grouped under A, B, and C categories. 964 employees work in A category temples, 2,000 in B category temples, and 860 in C category temples, he added.

Executive officer of A category temples, and deputy director of public instruction, Walter D'Mello, were among those present at the meeting.