HR&CE Dept. cancels administrative sanctions for ₹246-crore wedding halls, commercial complexes

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department has canceled the administrative sanction given for the construction of 29 wedding halls and 17 commercial complexes worth Rs 246 crore using excess funds from temples across the state.

The works include commercial complexes to be built using funds from the Arunachaleswarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai (₹ 6.40 crore) and the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai (₹ 3 crore), as well as wedding halls at the Dhandayudhaswamy Temple in Palani (₹ 9.80 crore) and the Sankaranarayanaswamy Temple in Sankarankoil. (₹9.80 crore).

These works were part of the announcements made in Parliament from 2022-23, but construction has not started until now. The decision follows various orders of the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench).

According to official sources, the HR&CE Commissioner wrote to the State government requesting removal of these notices from the records of the Assembly, following which they were removed.

A senior official said the funds could be used to provide better facilities to devotees. “We want to give priority to queue management, maintenance of cleanliness in temple premises, provision of prasadam through respective temple devasthanams, toilets, clean drinking water, annadhanam halls and devotee rest houses, among other facilities,” the official said.

Welcoming the move, a former HR&CE official said the construction of wedding halls and commercial complexes was a deviation from the provisions of the HR&CE Act. “Temple funds can only be used for charitable and spiritual purposes and wedding halls and commercial complexes do not come under the ambit of the Act. The ministry should have a regular program to clean all temples. Many old temples are facing problems due to pigeons, rats, bats and cockroaches,” he said.