INDIA, May 2012 (The Hindu): The Karnataka State Muzrai Temple Priests, Agamikas and Employees’ Association has demanded salary to its 100,000 members on a par with the Group D employees and adequate funds to maintain the temples, as they had been forced into penury following transfer of temple land to the tillers under the Karnataka Land Reforms Act.
Association president Srivatsa and vice-president Guruji Ramaswamy Devishree said thousands of acres of fertile land owned by over 36,000 Muzrai temples in the State was taken over by the government and given to the tillers during the D. Devaraj Urs regime, depriving the priests, agamikas and other employees of their livelihood. More than 98 per cent of the Muzrai temples were financially weak and the employees were unable to earn a square meal, they said.
Mr. Srivatsa demanded that the Government either pay US$110 a month as salary on a par with the group d employees or return the lands so that they could use the proceeds from the land for maintaining
temples.