Samajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has demanded that temples should be saved from the corruption of the administration.

He said the BJP and their partners are indirectly occupying all the big temples on the pretext of management of the government. “Traditionally, those who have been doing their duties in the management of these temples for hundreds of years, government were taking away their rights to their service, as well as expressing disbelief on them, in a way it is being alleged that they are not able to work or their operations are flawed,” he alleged in a statement.

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The SP president’s demand came in the wake of the Uttar Pradesh government ordinance on Shri Banke Bihari Ji Temple Trust taking control of the temple in Vrindavan on Monday.

Akhilesh Yadav said the donation and charity that devotees give in the temples for darshan, Prasad, Safety, Public Service, Dharamshala, etc. is for charitable purposes and the faithful management gives full service and ensures this because they have a very deep devotional spirit.

“Those who are outsiders or professionals weigh all these religious investments on profit-loss scales, it is not a matter of reverence for them. There are cases where such administrative people indulged in corruption by selling even the bell sheets offered in the temple. Businessmen should remember that religion is for goodness, not for earning. It is not spontaneous that since the BJP has come, ‘administrative occupation’ has been becoming one after the other,” he charged.

Akhilesh Yadav said it is against the cultural-religious tradition of the country.

On Monday, the UP government gave a big blow to the temple sevadars for the management of Thakur Banke Bihari temple. The government has formed Shri Banke Bihari Ji Temple Trust  by bringing an ordinance.

The ordinance has been brought at a time when the sevadars have filed a review petition against the Supreme Court order regarding the Banke Bihari temple corridor. After the formation of the trust, the path of further action is also gradually becoming clear.

The trust will work under the Department of Charitable Affairs. The notification of the concerned ordinance was issued on Monday after receiving the green signal of Governor Anandiben Patel for the decision taken by the Cabinet by- circulation.

In the Supreme Court, the state government had proposed to create a national level Trust for better management of Thakur Banke Bihari temple.