Karnataka temples to be equipped with electronic donation boxes

With a view to preventing pilferage of money donated to temples by devotees, the BJP Government in Karnataka has decided to soon install electronic donation boxes.

Disclosing this to reporters, Karnataka’s Religious Endowment Minister Krishnaiah Shetty said the existing donation boxes called as “hundis” in local parlance will be replaced with e-hundis that will recognize the coins and denomination of currency notes dropped in them.

The information on the donations will be stored and cannot be tampered with manually. “The e-hundis, which will function like ATMs, will automatically count the collections and are tamper-proof. This will help check embezzlement of money donated to the temples by devotees”, Shetty said.

Presently, he said, there is no system to check the pilferage of temple funds. To begin with, the State Government will install e-hundis in all the prominent temples falling under the Religious Endowment Department of the State Government..

Shetty said his Department would also constitute vigilance squads to check embezzlement of funds in the temples. “These squads will visit the temples periodically. Also, we will make it mandatory for the temple trusts to open the donation boxes in the presence of jurisdictional tahsildar and religious endowment department officials”, he said.

The Minister said three companies had come forward to help the Government install the electronic donation boxes. “We will shortly float tenders for installing the electronic hundis”, Shetty added.

There are a total of 36,000 temples attached to the Religious Endowment Department of the state. “Out of these, as many as 24,000 temples are in a poor condition and prayers are not held regularly. Only 85 temples have an income of more than Rs 1 million every year. Another 100 temples have an income of less than Rs 1 million. The remaining have a meager income”, he said.

Shetty said the State Government has also chalked out a plan to revive the temples, which are in a poor condition, with the help of private donors. “I am planning to rope in Kannadigas settled in USA, UK, Canada and Australia for the purpose”, the Minister added.