New Kollur temple dining hall inaugurated by Srinivas Poojary

Byndoor: ‘Mookambika Annaprasada dining hall’ built at a cost of about Rs 21 crore at Goddess Mookambika temple at Kollur near here was inaugurated by the state muzrai, fisheries and ports minister Kota Srinivas Poojary on Wednesday October 2.

After attending the first ever meeting since taking charge as the minister, Mr Poojary said that considering chronic shortage of personnel faced by them by the muzrai temples in the state, he had taken steps to appoint 1,000 staff to the said temples.

The minister explained that there are 34,000 temples under his department out of which 190 are A grade temples and that the prime concern of the department was the proper and judicious utilization of the donations made by devotees. Working for social caused, it is proposed to hold mass marriages under the aegis of his department informed the minister and added that the government was considering a proposal to develop grazing pastures for cattle through the temples under the department.

“We propose to begin E-Hundi to enable devotees to donate cash, gold etc so that the money reaches temples in a transparent manner,” announced the minister and felt that this would also augment income of temples. Mr poojary also informed that there was also a proposal to enable people to book Yakshagana, Chandika Homa, gold chariot Seva and other services online.

Speaking on the occasion, Temple managing committee president Harish Kumar Shetty said that foundation stone had been laid for this 70,000 square feet dining hall and that every day, over 20,000 devotees can be served food here. This is a model dining hall in the entire state with the provision of hygienic equipment, he added.