Governor okays bill on temple committees

BANGALORE: Governor H R Bharadwaj had given his consent to the much debated Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment (Amendment) bill 2011, which was passed in both the houses of the Karnataka legislature in last March, Higher Education and Muzarai minister Dr V S Acharya informed on Wednesday.Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday, the minister stated that the bill would empower the state government to appoint a Religious Council (Dharmika Parishath) to appoint management and administrative committees to over 150 temples in the state earning over Rs 50 lakh of revenue per year.The nine member Religious Council consisting of Agama and Veda Sastra pandith's, one woman, a representative from Scheduled Caste, will be headed by the Minister concerned.The notification on this would be given within two days, and it would speed up the process of appointing the management and administrative committees for over 27000 temples in the state falling under Muzrai department.He said that while state level Religious Council would be entrusted to appoint members to the management committees to over 150 large temples including Kollur Mookambika, the district council headed by Deputy Commissioner will appoint management committees to small and medium sized temples at their places.Acharya clarified that the temples run by mutts and religious institutions, by the members through hereditary and community at large would be kept out of the ambit of the legislation.