Hereditary archakas to get minimum pay of 10,000

Guntur: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will release a final notification on GO Ms No.76 relating to the hereditary rights of 40,000 archakas working in various temples and the service rules soon.

Chandrababu Naidu and Minister for Endowments K E Krishna Murthy will release the final notification in the presence of members of Archaka associations coming from across the State.

According to sources, achakas working in the temples on hereditary basis have no fixed salary, no pension and no gratuity so far. At present, temple executive officers are giving salaries.

They will get a minimum salary of Rs 10,000 per month and likely to get gratuity, pension, rights on plate collections and Prasadams, according to GO Ms No.76.

The Endowments Department will issue a identity card to the hereditary archakas very soon. The service rules for hereditary archakas will be applicable to all the archakas working in all the temples except hereditary archakas working in the TTD.

Following request of the Archaka Sanghams, the TDP government issued a preliminary GO No 76, on February 10, 2017. Endowments department officials and members of Archakas’ associations raised objections over it.

The government constituted a committee led by retired IAS officer S Balasubramanyam to look into the matter which received requirements of the archakas associations in writing.

Balasubramanayam and senior IAS officer Girija Sankar held discussions with the archakas. Subsequently, the committee submitted its report to the government. Based on the report, the government issued a final G.O which will benefit 40,000 hereditary archakas working in various temples in the State.