Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Pratap Sarangi has urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to provide a compensation package for priests and servitors, who are finding it difficult to earn livelihood, amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Pratap Sarangi in his letter to Naveen Patnaik also pointed out that temples in Odisha, unlike many other states, do not pay salaries to the priests and servitors, who mostly depend on offerings from devotees for their everyday expenses.
In the letter to Naveen Patnaik, the Union Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises said, “I request you to kindly issue instructions to the state’s Hindu Religious Endowment Authority to make an assessment of the ground situation and come out with a compensation package for the priests and servitors of the temples under its charge, for their relief in these difficult times.”
In the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Odisha government has shut down places of worship across the state to prevent mass gatherings. Sarangi said the priests and their attendants were finding it difficult to feed their families.
Odisha have so far reported 23 positive cases of coronavirus in the state. Two new cases were reported Sunday from the state capital. One of them is a 70-year-old man who had returned here March 22 and had been in home quarantine. The second person to be affected by the dreaded virus is a 29-year-old man from the Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar.
PNN & Agencies