Hyderabad: With tele transactions increasing at most of the religious places, digital hundis are on the upswing.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has recently announced that cashless transactions were picking up in Tirumala, be it for accommodation or other requirements.
In this context, Chief Secretary Dr S K Joshi on Thursday tweeted that it was important to make hundis cashless. Seeking suggestions, Dr. Joshi said, “Certain media reports have stated that cashless transactions are on the rise in the religious places. Now the challenge is to make the Hundis cashless while protecting the spirit of secret donations (gupt danam). It is important to achieve the goal. Suggestions are welcome.”
Devotees in Telangana have been at the forefront in doing digital transactions at temples and some villages have already adopted the cashless path to hundis.
For instance, in Mukhra, a village of just 650 people in Adilabad district, during the Dussehra festival in 2017, villagers donated money by scanning QR codes placed at the temple hundi. Even priests are of the view that donations in any form are good — cash or cashless.
M Pavan Kumar Sharma, convenor of Telangana Brahmana Association, said, “Donations can be given in any form and in any way. People put money in hundi for punyam or dravya shuddhi or other reasons. How the donation is done shouldn’t be of concern”.
However, there is another view. It is believed that the feelings of divinity and peace at religious places will be lost if people use their phones at hundi which are typically placed at various spots. Another priest called for the removal of hundis and creation of Daily Puja Fund.
Speaking to siasat.com, Chilkur Chief Priest C S Rangarajan said, “The whole concept of hundi is not part of our religion as there cannot be a transaction between God and devotee. At Chilkur, we follow the method of Daily Puja Fund, a corpus where people can make online donations, and it is digital to ensure we can meet the needs of the temple. In fact, the Chilkur model of Daily Puja Fund for small temples was also accepted by the Supreme Court when my father presented the idea in 1996.”
Chilkur doesn’t have a hundi on its premises. He said, “Public sector banks can act as enablers by making ‘Daily Puja Fund’ financial instrument as per SC order.
They can ease opening this account in the name of deities and ease devotees’ donations to this fund with a provision that the principal can never be withdrawn. PSBs can give guaranteed interest to be provided every year to temple.”
By Mohammed Hussain mohammedhussain.reporter@gmail.com