Plight of temple priests and staff moved me

I am moved by the plight of Priests and Staff members of Hindu temples who are on hunger strike demanding minimum wages for their service and also allocation of funds to conduct daily rituals in temples. The agitating priests and staff members poured out their woes when I visited them in Visakhapatnam today.

During Dr. YSR’s regime a separate fund the tune of Rs.170 cr per annum was earmarked to carry out daily rituals in those temples which does not come under the purview of state government’s endowments department.

However, after the death of YSR, the successive governments not only ignored allocating funds for daily rituals but also left the welfare of priests and staff of those temples to the winds. I expressed full support to the just and genuine demands of agitating priests and temple staff.