Endowments dept may get double budget allocation by Govt

 Telangana | Written by : Suryaa Desk Updated: Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 03:47 PM

Hyderabad: State government plans to double the budget allocation for the Endowments Department for 2018-19 fiscal from Rs 104.87 crore last year. The department officials have already submitted estimations to the Finance Department for increasing budget under plan and non-plan categories.

After formation of new State, the government has been extending the much-needed financial support to Endowments Department under various new schemes. The government is making separate budgetary allocations for development of famous temples in the State such as Yadadri and Vemulawada. Funds are also allocated every year for all other temples to provide infrastructure.

During 2015-16, the budgetary allocation for Endowments Department was Rs 37.12 crore, in 2016-17 it was raised to Rs 84.36 crore. The government wants take up construction of more temples in the State including in weaker section colonies and based on the proposals, the government will make budgetary allocations in the coming fiscal.

Besides this, the Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy said the government had proposed to extend ‘Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam’ scheme to more temples in the State. During the first stage 1,805 temples were covered under DDN scheme and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had recently announced that 3,000 more temples would be brought under the scheme. “Based on the budgetary allocations, the scheme will be further extended to cover more temples in the State,” Indrakaran Reddy said.

The department also wanted funds for developing a Vedic School at Vemulawada temple and explore possibilities of setting up more such schools in the State.