Let them go on pilgrimages

A state of moral welfare

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

The government of Karnataka, we are informed has “taken a decision to introduce a scheme to conduct pilgrimage tours for poor people.” People below the poverty line (BPL) qualify. (But the last time the Karnataka government tried to compile a list of BPL families 91% of them applied.) According to the New Indian Express, “the government will provide bus, boarding, lodging and darshan facilities at Kollur Mookambika Temple, Sri Krishna Temple at Udupi, Dharmasthala, Soudatti and other places at a subsidised cost.”

Here is a government that takes care of citizens’ welfare—in this world and the next, in this life and the next—for a trivial Rs 10 crore (presumably, every year). That’s not all. Should you residents of Karnataka find it extremely difficult to get a place to stay in those strange, foreign climes of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, relax in the knowledge that your government “has approved a plan for construction of a 500-room guesthouse and 25 cottages for VIPs at Tirumala in Tirupati.” This, for a trivial Rs 110 crore.

The floodgates have been opened wide.

Related Post: Andhra Pradesh’s state-subsidised tours to the holy land

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