The state government plans to take control of Mirzapur district's Vindhyavasini Devi temple, which is one of the most revered Shaktipeeths, attracting at least 20,000 devotees every day. On special occasions, the number of devotees runs into lakhs.

The Department of Religious Affairs has sent a proposal to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, seeking in-principle approval for taking over the temple. Once that happens, the government would constitute a new trust to supervise the collection and expenditure of donations that the temple receives daily in the form of cash and valuables.
The government will fix the pay-scale for the priests and other staff, and also provide a certain amount from the donations for the temple's maintenance.

"The proposal aims to give relief to devotees from exploitation by the priests (also called pandas) who demand undue cash as donations from them. Due to mismanagement inside the temple and lack of arrangements, devotees face a lot of problems," said Religious Affairs Minister Anand Singh.

Singh said the temple's existing trust is headed by the district magistrate, who only chairs important meetings and has no control on the financial and other internal affairs of the trust.

"Once the government gets control of the temple, a new trust will be formed to ensure better facilities and security to devotees, both inside and outside the temple. The approach to the temple will be improved and timings for visit (darshan) would be regularised," the minister said.

A department official said the government will appoint staff according to the requirement of the temple. "Priests and other staff would be paid fixed salaries and they would not be allowed to take cash or jewellery from devotees," the official said.

The district administration will set up an office inside the temple to manage its affairs.

He said the arrangement in the famous Tirupati Balaji temple in Andhra Pradesh is quite similar.
Vindhyavasini Devi temple is currently run by a trust — Vindhya Vikas Parishad — which is headed by the district magistrate while Superintendent of Police is the vice-chairman.

The priests, meanwhile, are against the move.

"The government wants to take control of the huge donations offered by the devotees. We will oppose the move. The donation is used for the maintenance of the temple and nearly 1,100 families survive on that," said Rajan Pathak, president of Vindhya Panda Sabha, an association of priests.

Pathak said there are two donation boxes inside the temple. "The temple staff use the donation collected in box placed inside the campus while the district administration takes the donation collected in the box placed outside. The administration takes donation directly as well," Pathak added.

Pathak also alleged that the district administration never uses the donation for development or maintenance of the temple.

"The district administration is trying to malign the image of priests by making baseless allegations of exploitation of devotees. The proposal is an attempt to take control on entire donation," said Pathak who claimed that Mirzapur district administration failed to provide the details of collection and expenditure of donation received between 1982 to 2007 when he sought the information under the RTI Act.