Small temples in Khammam district to closure

KHAMMAM: A majority of small temples in the district are on the verge of closure due to lack funds. Even the daily temple rituals have not been performed regularly for the past several months. According to endowments officials, the government had taken a decision to pay Rs. 2,500 per month to the 137 small temple identified in the district each which include the Rs. 1500 as priest’s salary and Rs. 1000 for dhoopa naivedyam.But, in implementation, the temples are hardly getting the funds.Some of the temple priests said neither had they got funds for the past four months for the temple not their salaries. These temples include Neelakanthaswamy temple in Manugur, Venugopalaswamy in Iravendi, Veerabhadraswamy temple in Mothe, Ramalayam in Patamata and the temple in Chandrupatla.Speaking to Express, endowments joint commissioner CH Vijaya Rama Rao admitted that some temples in the district had not getting the aid for the last three months and said he had written a letter to the government on the issue