Rs 64 crore proposed for building temples

Hyderabad: Endowment Minister A Indrakaran Reddy on Monday directed officials to expedite the process of constructing temples and renovate old ones using Common Good Fund (CGF).

At a review meeting, the Minister asked the officials to take engineers from other departments and appoint assistant sculptors on contract for taking up the temple works. He expressed displeasure at the tardy pace of works on several temples and said the government will take action against negligent officials.

CGF proposed Rs 64-crore funds for the budgetary allocations of 2017-18, including Rs 30 crore for construction of new temples, Rs 15 crore for regular rituals such as ‘dhupa deepa



naaivedyam’ and pujas and Rs 1 core for construction of a Vedic school at Vemulawada Rajarajeshwara temple.

Reddy said a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh will come into effect for the construction of more number of temples under CGF. The committee approved the construction of the Vedic school, he said, and CGF will offer Rs 1 crore.

It also approved to sanction Rs 2 crore for the construction of 20 temples in weaker sections colonies, each at a cost of Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 9 crore for 30 related works.

Endowment Secretary Shivashankar, Additional Commissioner Srinivas Rao and other officials were present at the review meeting.