Lokayukta seeks report on Rajasthan Devsthan minister accused of usurping temple properties

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Lokayukta has taken cognisance of allegations that Devsthan minister Otaram Devasi was misusing office to perch himself as 'priest for life' at the famous Chamunda Mata temple in Pali district.
The temple properties located in the minister's native village Mundara are said to be worth around Rs 100 crore and the sanctum is believed to receive offerings of nearly Rs 1 lakh per month.The temple has 75-bigha land that produces two crops a year.
Devasi (52), who is also a religious leader of the state's camel herding community Rabari, has been a priest at the temple since his youth days in the mid-1980s. The temple's Trust claims to be paying an additional Rs 4000 salary per month to Devasi for his services as priest, though the minister disputes it.
"Those leveling allegations should produce proof. Neither am I getting any salary nor is there any system of appointing a 'priest for life' at the temple. Price of the temple properties and its income too have been exaggerated by the complainant. Anyways, these belong to the trust and not to any individual," Devsthan minister Devasi told TOI.
Shree Chamunda Mata Trust Mundara's secretary Dilip Singh Karnaut has filed a complaint with the Lokayukta alleging that the minister of Devsthan department, which controls administration at the state's temples, was misusing office to add his brother and son to the Trust's executive and ultimately become the temple's permanent priest. Karnaut has alleged that Devasi has stopped performing his duties at the temple after joining politics.
Based on the complaint, Lokayukta Sajjan Singh Kothari has sought factual reports from the state's Devsthan commissioner as well as from the district collector and the superintendent of police of Pali district.
The minister told TOI that his name was being dragged in a family dispute of the temple trustees, who are descendants of the village's erstwhile Thakur (village head). "Karnaut and his cousins are fighting with each other since 2003 to control the trust. They have cases against one another pending in the courts. My name is being dragged since I am a minister," Devasi said. "Different persons from my community have served as priests at the temple for 11 generations now. I am the first one from my family to become a priest," he added.
Devasi is minister of state for Devsthan and Gaupalan (cows) in the Vasundhara Raje government. Though his village falls under Pali's Sumerpur assembly constituency, he contests elections from the neighbouring Sirohi assembly seat and is a second-term legislator.
Tall and sturdy Devasi first came to limelight for helping the then chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat secure Rabari community's votes on Bali assembly seat from where the BJP stalwart contested in 1993. Under the earlier Raje-government (2003-2008), Devasi served as chairman of Rajasthan Livestock Development Board.