Bengal govt introduces daily allowance for Hindu priests

Kolkata,1 July (HS):Meeting a long standing demand of the Hindu priest community, the West Bengal government today launched a new scheme of daily allowance for them at government crematoriums  by paying the first installment through cheques to altogether 27 Brahmin priests.

Handing over the first installment of payment of this allowance for the Hindu priests through cheques at a function at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)here this afternoon, City Mayor Firhad Hakim said  though the government wanted to introduce this unique and the first of its kind in the country such daily emoluments to the poor members of the Hindu priest community for long,as they had been paying similar allowance to  the Muslim Moulavis for the past several years, they could not do so because of paucity of funds.

But since large number of these Hindu priests had been facing a huge financial constrains for long and  had been demanding for the introduction of such a grant, the Chief minister had ordered for the same opening a new vista for these poor people for their decent livelihood, the Mayor said that before handing over the cheques of Rs 9,500 each to each of  the 27 Hindu priests who were selected in the first phase.

Under the scheme all priests who were associated with government crematoriums across the state, would now receive a daily allowance of Rs 398  for performing the last rites of the deceased. The amount would obviously be in addition to what they had been receiving from the relatives of the deceased,he said.

It may be recalled that the Mamata Banerjee government which had introduced a similar financial scheme for the Muslim priests and Moulavis about four years ago, did not consider a similar scheme for the priests from the Hindu community causing huge protest and grief among the Hindu priests of the state blaming the alleged double standard of the government.

But after experiencing a huge drubbing in the last Lok Sabha poll and losing as many as 18 of the state’s 42 Parliamentary seats to BJP,  the Chief minister must have realised the urgency of such a scheme and took a decision in this regard,said a senior political observer of West Bengal .