Salaries of grade 'B' temple priests hiked from April: Minister

Annual grants for temples increased; staffers to retire at 65 yrs

Minister for Textiles and Muzrai Rudrappa Manappa Lamani has said that the salaries of priests of grade ‘B’ temples has been increased from Rs 6,000 to Rs 13,000 and will come into effect from April itself.

During the inaugural function of the national-level astrology and palmistry conference organised by Sri Mayakara Gurukula at Kalamandira here on Saturday, Lamani said that, “The annual grants for temples (Tasthik) has been increased from Rs 36,000 to Rs 48,000. The age of retirement of all temple employees has been made uniform and they will retire at 65 years. Steps have been taken for the construction of a Archakara Bhavan at Bengaluru.

Funds will be sanctioned for the State Astrologers Federation to establish a library in the bhavan itself. The issue of appointing an astrologer to each temple in the state will be brought to the notice of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah,” he said.

Stating that he has brought the issues related to the Bill on superstitions to the notice of the chief minister, Lamani said the passing of the Bill has been temporarily dropped as it may hurt the image of the government. “Even though astrology is dependable, it would harm people if it is misrepresented. So people should not be mislead by astrologers. If one has no confidence in oneself, the science is of no use,” he said.

“Astrology is an ancient science like geography, maths, chemistry and physics. The calculations of astrology can predict an eclipse that may occur 1,000 years from now. I personally do not know the birth time, star, my ‘raashi’, ‘gothra’, etc. When somebody asks me what is my birth star, I say ‘God’s star’. My life is good. The people born in forests do not care for all these things. In my opinion one’s soul should be clean for achieving something in life,” he said.