Temples to have women priests soon, says HR and CE minister
Temple goers might soon see women performing poojas inside sanctum sanctorum of HR & CE run temples in the state. After ‘appointing’ all caste people as archakas, the ruling DMK is now ready to appoint women as temple priests.
By : migrator
Update: 2021-06-12 18:23 GMT
Chennai
Announcing it was none other than state HR & CE minister PK Sekar Babu who on Saturday announced that the government would train and appoint interested women as temple priests. Reiterating that all caste archakas scheme would be implemented in 100 days, Sekar Babu told media persons here after a departmental review that women, if they wish, would be trained and appointed as temple priests, with the permission of the Chief Minister.
Though the minister’s reply to a media query suggests that the idea was only at a nascent stage, it convincingly demonstrates that the ruling dispensation was contemplating something and it was favourably disposed to the idea of women performing poojas.
If implemented, it could be significant among the reforms being implemented by the department in a little over a month since the formation of the new government. Only a few days ago, the HR and CE department posted details of the land holdings of temples in the state. Priests’ mobile numbers would be displayed in temples to perform Tamil poojas
Asked about performing pooja in Tamil in HR and CE temples, Sekar Babu said that training has been given to priests and poojas were being performed in Tamil already. Instructions have been given to place boards in all 47 (first grade) HR and CE temples, informing people that poojas would be performed in Tamil. The boards would also bear the details of priests performing Tamil poojas, including mobile numbers.
Plea to make panchami land details public via online like temple assets
Days after the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment department released details of temple land online, a new demand has been made to the state government to form a committee to retrieve the 12 lakh acres of Panchami land distributed to Dalits during the British rule and release details online as well. A demand to this effect was made by the Neelam Cultural Centre of the director Ranjith. In a tweet, the Neelam Cultural Centre wrote that like the HR and CE department releasing the temple land detail online, the government should take steps to release 12 lakh acres of Panchami land belonging to Dalits online. “The government should find out how much lands were encroached and release all the details, ” it said, urging the Chief Minister to constitute Panchami Land Retrieval Committee to restore the lands to rightful owners. The Panchami land retrieval was a long pending demand of Dalit parties and Left parties with both the DMK and the AIADMK forming various committees in this regard. In 2015, the AIADMK government formed a three-member committee headed by the Commissioner of Land Administration to study and submit a report suggesting modalities for retrieving Panchami land occupied by non-Dalits and restoring its ownership to Dalits.
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