Shirdi (Ahmadnagar):Saibaba Temple Trust, one of the richest temple trusts that runs the Saibaba Temple at Shirdi, which earns annual revenue of Rs 400 crore, now faces cash crunch to pay salaries and meet miscellaneous expenses.
Officials said that they used to receive their salary on the fifth of every month but this time, it has been fifteen days and they are working without pay.
"Meanwhile, there are at least 32 employees engaged in distributing water to the devotees who have not been paid since November. They are pressing for immediate payment of salaries," they added.
The temple was closed in view of the lockdown for the past 90 days due to which the flow of donations has come to a halt. Sai Baba Temple attracts an average of 25,000 pilgrims in a day which can go upto 1,00,000 during festive seasons.
According to reports, the Sai Baba Temple Trust at Shirdi faced a loss of Rs 1.58 crore every day during the lockdown. With no donations coming in, the trust has dried up and has added to the woes of the staff.
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The donations received earlier were converted into Fixed Deposits in different national banks which were used in the initial phase of the lockdown to pay the employees. But in May, the permanent staff did not receive their salaries and they claimed that they had contacted the trust office but their pleas went unheard.
In view of the acute economic austerity, the incentives of expert doctors working in Saibaba Super Speciality Hospital, Sainath Hospital have been stopped and the payment of contractual workers have been reduced to 40 per cent. Apart from this, several workers have been asked to go on leave without any further notice with no pay.
Deputy Executive Officer of the Trust, Ravindra Thakre, said, "We have raised our concern before the managing committee but they are tight-lipped and have refused to comment on the same."
Temple authorities are hopeful of recovering the financial losses, as they are of the view that devotees will throng the temple once the temple reopens.
