Temple donations through swipe machines: Indrakaran Reddy

Hyderabad, Dec.5: Telangana Government has decided to encourage cashless transactions in endowment department by introducing swiping machines in major temples across the state. Demonetisation implications may hit hard the temple revenue, and hence the government wants to have swiping machines to make donations. The state government is favouring cashless transactions as the Centre banned high-value notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. According to information, Endowment Minister A Indra Karan Reddy has asked the officials to introduce the swiping machines at the big and major temples to receive donations from the devotees. Taking a cue from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the officials of the endowment wing are in the process of upgrading the websites to receive online donations. The swiping machines will now play a major role to get revenue to the gods at various temples as the government is favoring the cashless transactions. Since note ban decision by the Centre shown a tremendous effect on monetary activities across the nation, every state government is taking necessary steps to encourage cashless transactions. Indrakaran Reddy said that due to the dearth of hard cash in the wake of demonetization, steps have been taken to make use of swiping machines in the major temples like Yadadri, Vemulawada, Kondagattu, Basara, and others. Also, it was decided to encourage the people in a big way to make online donations through an official website being upgraded now. Similarly, booking of cottages, darshanam tickets, special pujas, purchase of prasadam, payment at Kalyanakatta will go online and avoid cash transactions. The government has taken steps to this extent