Jain temples under purview of HR&CE to be renovated: Minister

Chennai Minister allocates ₹5 crore to renovate Jain temples, emphasizing heritage preservation and support for temple staff and archakas.

Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) P. K. Sekarbabu on Wednesday said that ₹5 crore will be allocated to renovate 16 Jain temples that come under the purview of the department.

Addressing presspersons after a review meeting, he said that the decision was taken by the high-level committee headed by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, which met on Tuesday.

“The Chief Minister is very particular that these temples too be renovated without changing the original structure and by retaining their heritage characteristics,” he said.

Among the other decisions taken by the committee are 500 temples that get an annual income of less than ₹10,000 will be renovated; temples that are classified as village temples and those in SC/ST habitations will be given an increased grant of ₹2.5 lakh for repairs and renovations.

Other decisions include providing free annual health check-ups for all 47,000-plus staff, archakas and employees of temples and construction of 100 houses for archakas. A world conference on Lord Murugan would be conducted at Palani.

Book stalls would be opened at 100 more temples and e-versions of books would also be published by the department, Mr. Sekarbabu said.