Govt funding up to Rs 1.5 crore to temple trusts to add sheen to 'aarti'

The government is loosening its purse strings to add sheen to the ritual of ‘aarti’ and other cultural spectacles performed at select temples and religious sites that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

For this, some 25 temple trusts, predominantly in northern India, have been shortlisted for grants of up to Rs 150 lakh each by the culture ministry under a Rs 40-crore scheme that is to be implemented in the first 100 days of the Narendra Modi government’s second stint, that is by October 15, people aware of the development told ET. The first tranche has already gone to the Vaishno Devi temple in J&K, they said.

The funding, however, comes with one requirement—the recipient temple trust/ not-for-profit organisation must promote and propagate through audio-visual messages the entire spectrum of the government’s social projects—from its clean Ganga and the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ projects to the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ initiative.


Officials also said that in order to arrest the increased Bollywood influence on devotional music, the trusts will also be encouraged to use authentic and traditional devotional hymns and prayers—compiled by the culture ministry in its new ‘Sangam’ App.

The list for grants includes the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the aartis at the ghats of Varanasi, Dwarka Dheesh mandir, Somnath Prabhas Patan, Ambaji temple and Shamla ji temple, Har ki Paudi in Haridwar, Parmarth Niketan & Swami Narayan ghat in Rishikesh, the Kedarnath trek and the Yamnotri temple.

Maharashtra’s Kar veer nivasini Mahalax- - mi temple and Himachal Pradesh’s Chintpurni temple, Naina Devi, Jawalamukhi temple, Mahamaya Bal Sundari temple and Chamunda Devi temple too are in the list.

Better known as the ‘aarti scheme’, the project aims at ‘enhancing the audio-visual spectacle for allied cultural activities to give first-hand experience of live performances on regular basis and during festivals in areas where thousands of visitors are known to congregate.

This scheme for ‘Financial Assistance for creation of Cultural Infrastructure’ allows for a Rs 100-lakh ceiling for audio components and a Rs 150 lakh cap for a combined audio-video upgrade.

While the Centre will fund up to 90% of the upgradation project cost, the remaining will have to be provided by the trust/organisation.

The government will fund the cost towards procurement of audio-video equipment after the National Science Centre gives a go ahead to the proposal made by a trust/not-for-profit organisation. To be eligible for the fund, the organisation must be engaged at least for the last three years in presenting ‘the spectacle for allied cultural activities’.