Bhattas’ of Pashupati to get salary, Offerings will go to treasury

A proposal of paying fixed salaries to priests of the Pashupatinath temple authorizing the Culture Ministry to handle the monetary offerings to the Hindu shrine has been submitted to Culture Minister Gopal Kirati.

A subcommittee formed in November last year to maintain transparency of monetary offerings has proposed this according to which the four sections of “sacred” priests—Bhatta, Bhandari, Bishet and Rairakami—will receive salaries and perks as provided to civil servants by the government. The Mul Bhatta, chief of the four Bhatta priests, will receive Rs 40,000 monthly and a daily allowance of Rs 3,000. The remaining three Bhatta priests will receive Rs 30,000 per month and Rs 2,000 in daily allowance as published in ekantipur

As 101 Bhandaris are handling temple affairs for a period of one month in turn, Kirati said that there are some technical problems for their salary.

According to Kirati, 8 Bishets, who are responsible for managing logistics at the main temple, have already been receiving some amount of money as salary from the Pashupati Area Development Trust. It is equivalent to that received by a section officer in government service. Rairakamis receive salaries as non-gazetted government officials depending on their responsibility.