Not only common men, even the seats of the almighty feel the heat of COVID-19 lockdown. The pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the shrines across the country with several temple administrative committees deciding to sell their assets to tide over the financial crisis.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), that manages the Lord Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh, has initiated process for auctioning its 23 properties, together worth Rs 2 crore. These properties in Vellore, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts of Tamil Nadu include houses, vacant lands and agricultural lands.
Besides these properties, the board has Rs 12,000 crore in FDs in various nationalised banks. TTD has several educational institutions and health care facilities under its control besides being involved in charitable activities.
There were reports that that the hill shrine, arguably the richest in the world, was facing a huge financial crisis due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown and was struggling to meet the salary bill. Reports also claimed that the temple board had already suffered a loss of Rs 400 crore during the ongoing lockdown.
However, temple board chairman T.V. Subba Reddy had dismissed such reports and said the devotees continued to offer their donations online. According to him, close to Rs 2 crore donations were received in April.
The temple, which attracted around 80,000 to one lakh devotees on a regular day, shut its doors for public on March 20 in the wake of the coronavirus spread. However, all rituals are being conducted uninterruptedly by the priests.
In Kerala, the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages some of the major temples in the state including Sabarimala, has decided to sell all the extra lamps and traditional brass utensils to overcome the severe financial crisis. According to reports, the board has a plenty of such lamps and utensils in Ettumanoor, Chettikulangara and Valliyangavu temples.
Though the TTB has assured that the lamps and vessels for regular use will not be auctioned, some members of the board have raised objections against the decision.
With no inflow of devotees, many of the small and big temples in the country are facing a huge financial crunch. Since the daily pujas and rituals cannot be suspended, the expenses of these temples remain the same even during the lockdown. Pujaris in the local temples are the worst affected as they don’t have a fixed salary like those in government-administered shrines.
In a bid to generate funds, some temples have made an appeal for online donations while some others have started streaming the arti live on their social media page.