The Karnataka government was chastised for delivering a notice to Hiremagaluru Kannan, a priest at the Kodanda Ramachandra Swamy temple in Hiremagaluru, Chikkamagaluru, requesting him to refund an amount of Rs 4.74 lakh paid to his account as remuneration between 2013 and 2022. The Chikkamagaluru tahsildar sent the letter on 2nd December, but the issue was discovered only on Tuesday (23rd January) and got rid of within hours.
According to the notice, the government “inadvertently” paid Kannan Rs 8.1 lakh as tasdik or honorarium between 2013 and 2022, instead of the statutory Rs 3.36 lakh. Thus, the tehsildar requested that Kannan repay the excess money of Rs 4.74 lakh.
The notification also stated that the temple generated Rs 9.34 lakh in revenue between 2013 and 2022, but spent Rs 12.96 lakh. The amount includes Kannan’s monthly salary of Rs 7,500.
The notice also stated that the temple is classified as category C, a low-income religious establishment. Kannan told the media on Tuesday, “I’ve been asked to return the amount because the temple’s revenue is less than the expenses for the tasdik.”
“I was supposed to get an annual tasdik of Rs 24,000 between 2003 and 2017 but I was credited Rs 90,000 per year. Likewise, I was supposed to get Rs 45,000 per year between 2017 and 2022 but I received Rs 90,000 per year. I was paid an additional amount of Rs 4.74 lakh over 10 years and I was asked to return the money as the temple was not generating good revenue. However, I wish to mention that it is because of priests like me, that the government hundi collections have increased,” Kannan said.
As the matter gained traction, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra turned to social media to assert that the Congress-led government is “targeting Hindu religious sentiments”.
Later, Minister of Transport and Endowment Ramalinga Reddy stated that the notice handed to the priest would be canceled. “I have directed officers to hold an inquiry against the tahsildar and other officers responsible for wrong payment and recovery of excess amounts.”
On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated that the excess money “will be collected from the tahsildar” because it was the tahsildar’s error.
However, reports mention that some government personnel implicated in erroneous payments have retired. Notably, payments to the priests were halted in March 2022, as the procedure of recovering excess amounts paid to them began.
