Ahead of the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration on January 22, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde directed district collectors across the state to launch a week-long temple cleanliness drive, ensuring visible progress by next week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a call to keep temples clean. The district collectors in Maharashtra should undertake a cleanliness drive across all the temples and decorate them with electric lights. The change should be visible within a week, Shinde said.
To ensure long-term maintenance, Shinde also called for establishing a dedicated budget line within the District Planning and Development Council (DPDC) for regular temple upkeep. DPDCs should allocate appropriate funds for cleaning temples and their surroundings, and a special scheme can be devised for sustained efforts, he added.
To oversee the drive’s effective implementation, Shinde instructed the state revenue department to appoint a nodal officer for monitoring purposes.