TIRUPATI, INDIA, May 29, 2018 (The Hans India): With the summer vacation drawing to a close, especially to the school-going children, the temple city of Tirupati has been witnessing a peak in the pilgrim crowd. For the past several days, the transit points have been bustling with activity as many people are making last minute plans to visit the hill shrine and other temples in Tirupati. This unprecedented rush has reached saturation stage and the railway station was chock-a-block with every inch filled to its capacity and the crowd finding it difficult to find space even to stand.
Passengers find it very difficult to find a place in any train with all the trains having huge waiting lists. For instance, presently Narayanadri express running between Tirupati-Secunderabad was having a waiting list between 150-200. As they could not find reserved accommodation, passengers have been forced to buy general tickets to find their luck in general compartments making long queue lines at ticket counters.
MALAYSIA, May 26, 2018 (The Star): The government is planning to set up Hindu Endowment Boards in all states to ensure credibility and transparency in temple management. Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said the board would ensure conformity and uniformity in the running of temples nationwide, as well as make public the financial accounts of temples. ”We want to model it on Penang’s Hindu Endowment Board, but expand on that and implement an improved version. In Penang, the endowment board hosts and organises the yearly Thaipusam and Pongal festivals. They oversee the governance of temples, landed property, buildings, houses, burial grounds and money donated for the benefit of the Hindu community in Penang.
”We hope to enact a law on this as well,” Kulasegaran said, adding that such an endowment board in every state was part of Pakatan Harapan manifesto. He said this in response to Hindu organisations calling for a full audit of the Batu Caves temple management committee when it was discovered that the committee was not registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS). While acknowledging that they were not registered with RoS, committee chairman Tan Sri R. Nadarajah said the committee submitted detailed accounts every year to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and followed the administration procedure as stipulated.
Your heart is the temple where God should be enshrined. Your good thoughts are the flowers, your good words the hymns, your good deeds the rituals. And love is the offering.
— Mata Amritanandamayi Ma, Kerala-based hugging saint
