The Nair Service Society (NSS) has questioned the government’s claim that the State has been providing the necessary annual grant for the day-to-day management of over 1,200 temples attached to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
In a statement here on Wednesday, NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair said Col. John Munroe, the then Diwan of Travancore, had attached all temple assets to the government without giving any compensation to devaswoms.
The Government of India and the King of Travancore had signed a covenant in 1949 to provide an annual contribution worth ₹46.5 lakh to the temple devaswoms. Of this, ₹6 lakh was for Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram and the remaining ₹40.5 lakh for the TDB and this had been included in the Constitution of India as Article 290-A.
After a long gap of 55 years, the government headed by A.K. Antony had enhanced this contribution to ₹80 lakh for the TDB and ₹20 lakh for Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple in 2004. According to Mr. Nair, the State’s contribution to the temple administrative bodies, as per covenant, cannot be treated as an annual grant, but only their legitimate share.
Sabrimala master plan
Mr. Nair said successive State governments had been annually allotting certain fund to the high-power committee for implementation of the Sabarimala master plan. Apart from this, the government had not been giving any grant for the temples, he said.