DHNS

Kundapur, Aug 25: Government has planned to give autonomy to the temple administrations to develop some of the most popular pilgrim centres on the Tirupathi Temple Model.

As a first step towards this, temples like Kukke Subramanya, Kollur Mookambika temple, Chamrajanagar Malemahadeshwara and Mysore Chamundi Temples will be selected to implement the same on experimental basis,” said Minister for Endowment B Nagaraj Shetty.

Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the newly built hostels at a cost of Rs 3.8 crore on Friday August 24, Shetty also distributed the cheques on behalf of the temple summing upto Rs 10.8 lac to poor people.

“After the coalition government came into power in the state, the religious centres across the state witnessed outstanding development.

 It has set aside a sum of Rs 12 crore for the development of 2,800 temples across the state and has also given an in-principle approval to the Rs 24 crore under ground drainage in the Kollur temple area”, he added. He said that there were only 171 degree colleges in the state since last 48 years. But in last 18 months of rule, coalition government has started 178 colleges pointing at the development of the state and the government itself.

The programme was presided over by Byndoor MLA K Gopal Poojary who said that when a person comes to power he must forget politics and toil for the development of the region. He said that since the ‘Aradhan Samiti’ has not been formed, the funds allotted for the development of the religious centres in the region has not been distributed.

He said that it is laudable that the income of Kollur Temple is being utilised for the development of a region like Bellary but at the sametime there are lot of infra structure development remaining to be taken up in the region too.

He requested Shetty to immediately release funds for revival of Brahmavara Sugar factory, infrastructure development in Kollur region and to take up Kollur Temple hostel works. Karnataka Fisheries Development Board president K Lakshminarayana, MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik and others were present at the programme.

Cheques were distributed to people suffering from Cancer, cardiac problem and kidney disorders.