The decision of Shri Chintpurni Temple Board to enhance entry fee for groups of devotees seeking darshan on priority and for senior citizens at Chintpurni temple in Una district, has invited public criticism.
The temple board has enhanced the entry fee for groups seeking quick darshan substantially as the entry fee for groups will now be charged for Rs 300 for each member of the group .
Earlier, the fee for groups was charged at Rs 1100 for a smaller group of five members but after the new decision each group will have to pay Rs 1500.
Similarly, the entry fee for senior devotees above the age of 65 years has also been doubled from Rs 50 to Rs 100.
The Shri Chintpurni temple of Una district is a very popular religious place which is visited by a large number of devotees from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and thousands of people throng the place to seek blessing in the temple.
Rakesh Kumar Garg, a frequent visitor from Ludhiana to the temple said, “It is strange the temple authorities have increased the entry for groups and for elderly devotees, this being the only temple in Himachal where such fee is charged.”
He said, “It is the duty of the temple management to make arrangements for darshan of every devotee in a smooth manner by managing the rush of devotees; since every devotee makes donation as per his wish, increasing entry fee is not a good decision”, he added.
Senior citizens are also irked at the decision, a senior Citizen Council member Param Dev said, “Everywhere senior citizens are given free entry at public places but the temple management board has increased the entry fee for elderly devotees from Rs 50 to Rs 100.”
Though, the temple board is justifying the increase in entry fee for groups by saying the earlier system was creating problems as many individual devotees were sneaking in the groups to gain entry .
However, many devotees feel, “This is an attempt to generate more funds for the temple board, that too when income of the temple is in crores and the temple has large reserves of huge money, besides gold and silver; the devotees also make a large offering in the temple to seek blessings.”
