By Anjana Girish and Riya Mathews
CHENNAI, November 15:
With the devalued currency notes hitting the headlines for the past one week, a probe into the silent beneficiaries has become an interesting aspect to be looked upon.
Though the services like Paytm, PayUmoney and Olamoney is said to have benefited from the demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, no such information is available on how the recent developments are affecting the country's largest, independent trustees.
As religious institutions and organisations don’t come under the direct control of the government, it is often difficult to track the financial resources of these institutions.
By adhering to the notion that chances may be there for people to deposit the unwanted currency gained through illicit means in the "safe" zone of churches, temple and mosques, the reporters met half a dozen authorities from the concerned religious centres.
But this has been ruled out as most of them pointed out that the income received through these offerings has reduced due to the recent demonetisation.
Fr. Jude Rajesh, administrator and treasurer at the Annai Vailankanni Shrine in Besant Nagar, said that there was no considerable rise in income post demonetisation. In fact, he pointed out that the number of 50 and 100 rupee currency notes have been reduced. Though he refused to reveal the exact count of notes, he mentioned that they are getting 500 and 1000 rupee notes more than usual.
On the contrary, Priya Prabhakaran, a shopkeeper nearby, thinks that the church may be getting more devalued currencies as offerings.
N. Adhbhutham, a church staff at the religious article shop, hinted that the administrator has told them not to collect currency notes of 500 and 1000. Further, she also emphasized that the sales has been decreased post demonetisation as people don't have money in smaller denominations.
The rector and parish priest of Santhome Cathedral basilica, Fr. S. Louis Mathias also reiterated that the offerings have been reduced since the devaluation of currency. The church staff who chose to remain unidentified told that they were advised not to accept the devalued currencies and refuse to talk further more.
P.Saddiq, a businessman who happened to be at the Jumma Masjid in Mylapore, read out the previous week's collection which was Rs 4620 from the notice board and said that the offerings are more or less the same as before except during special occasions like Ramzan.
The superintendent at the Kapaleeshwarar Temple, C. Nirmala, said that the offering boxes will only be opened during the month end and hence they do not have an account of the money received after the devaluation took place.
The details regarding the offerings received at the Madhya Kailash temple was not accessible as T.M. Ramamoorthy, the authority in charge was not available for the comment.
