Kollur temple: Action demanded against officials found guilty of financial mismanagement

Byndoor:  Spokesperson of Karnataka Temples and Religious Institutions Federation, Guruprasad Gowda exposed the documents and papers obtained through the Right To Information Act at a press meet on Tuesday, March 9.

Addressing the press meet, he informed about the widespread corruption noticed in the affairs of the Kollur Mookambika temple. He further pointed out that the deficiencies enumerated in the audit report haven’t been set right.

Informing that Rs 29.55 lac was the pending payment towards security deposit, Guruprasad asserted, ” The details of security deposit received in cash have not been mentioned and the advance dealings of the temple were not produced.”

He further added that the pending dues of Rs. 2.83 crore has been shown but the details like the name of the institutions from whom these amounts are due have not been furnished for audit.

It was found that the travel allowances bills of the staff have been passed by just writing down in the books and without maintaining detailed records. An amount of Rs 3.08 lac was spent for providing uniforms to temple staff, but no records about procuring the uniforms and giving them to staff have been maintained.

Apart from that Rs 3.94 lac was spent to provide uniforms to high school children but the records of auditing to prove that clothes were produced and provided have not been produced.

In one case, a car was hired for the amount of Rs 50,000 but there were no papers to prove why and for what purpose the vehicles were provided to the secretary.

Guruprasad warned that a state-wide agitation will be launched if there are no actions taken against the officials found guilty of improper accounting and financial irregularities.

Sunil Ghanavat, the spokesperson of Temples and Religious Institutions Federation Maharashtra, Prabhakar Nayak, Srinivas, and Chandra Mogera, members of the Karnataka federation, were present.