Mumbai: When the state government is facing a finance crunch, why is it not using the funds of rich temple trusts controlled by it to fight against CoVID-19? This was the question asked by the former president of Western India Advocates Association and a senior counsel Rajeev Chavan.
In Maharashtra, the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi and Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust in Mumbai are financially powerful trusts. Both are controlled by the state government. “These trusts have crores of rupees in their account.
This money has come from the people. Amidst this pandemic, it would be most appropriate to utilise this money for the welfare of the people,” suggested Chavan in a letter sent to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
“Thus, I urge you to immediately direct the Law and Judiciary department (which controls these trusts), to launch an activity through the respective temple trust committees as well as direct these trusts to procure PPE and ventilators for hospitals in Maharashtra,” he demanded.
“Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust has already donated Rs 51 crore to the CM Relief Fund. We are distributing food and using the trust’s hospitals for coronavirus patients,” reacted Suresh Haware, president of the trust. But Aadesh Bandekar, president of Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust did not respond to calls and SMS on this issue.
Former Advocate General of the state and senior advocate Shreehari Aney supported Chavan’s suggestion in his Facebook post. He also shared Chavan’s letter in his post.
“The letter makes all kinds of sense. It is necessary that these houses of God come forward to use their funds to fight the pandemic. That would be doing God’s work,” Aney said in his post.
