Coimbatore : Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) today requested the District Collector to reopen the  temples and provide welfare measures and relief funds to temple priests.

In a petition to the collector, K Rajamani, the VHP Temple Priests Association headed by the District President Jegannathan, requested him to allow to open the temples so that devotees can visit.

Seeking HR and CE departement to provide welfare measures to all the priests, both registered and not registered with the welfare board, it said even as nearly 5,000 temples in the district were closed during the lock down period, priests were performing poojas and rituals in the absence of devotees.

The petition claimed that almost all the priests were living in penury and depending only on the revenue from the temples and the lock down has
thrown them into lot of hardship to make both the ends meet.

Considering the plight of the priests the government should come forward and open the temples and allow the devotees to visit them.

Meanwhile, a section of Hindu Makkal Katchi activists staged a demonstration in front of Koniyamman Temple in the city seeking to open the temples. All of them were arrested.