Chennai, March 24 (BPNS)

Tamil Nadu temples will accept donations through QR code including for various sevas such as archana, special entry, abhishekham and offering vastram to the deity. This facility will be made available in 536 temples that are under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department of the government of Tamil Nadu.

The department has commenced trial to provide QR codes and scanners at the temples.

A senior official of the HR&CE department while speaking to IANS said, “ Many devotees are comfortable with e-payments and we get requests from devotees across the globe for making e-payments. We will provide the devotees with computerised bills.”

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed the software for this and has been customized for each temple, the official said.

It may be noted that ever since the DMK government assumed office in May 2021, the department of HR&CE has been initiating a slew of developments in all temples under it. The department has taken special interest to evict encroachers and tenants of temple buildings who had defaulted rents for several years. The department has also taken steps to bring back the stolen temple idols and other valuables.

The department in association with the idol squad of the Tamil Nadu police has made a registry of the valuables stolen from the temples under it and have already commenced identifying the idols and other valuables that were stolen years ago.

Minister for HR&CE, P.K. Sekar Babu while speaking to BPNS said, “We are in the process of using modern technologies in temples under HR&CE and the online payment for archanas and other temple offerings is a part of this development. There were requests from devotees across the globe to provide online facilities for payment of offerings to temples and we have entrusted the NIC to develop customized software for each temple under the department. The trail for the same has already commenced and we will implement it soon in temples under HR&CE in a phased manner.”