Hamirpur, October 18 – The Baba Balak Nath Temple in Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur district is set to implement a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) following allegations of irregularities in offerings management, officials said. The district administration is studying successful models from Kashi Vishwanath and Mata Vaishno Devi trusts to bring more transparency and accountability to the temple in Deotsidh.
“The new SOP will digitise the process, and every count of offerings will generate a printed slip detailing the number of notes and total amount, verified manually. Each bundle will be sealed with plastic, recording the amount and number of notes,” a temple trust spokesperson said on Saturday. “This system is aimed at reducing human error and irregularities to nearly zero.”
Earlier this month, two employees of the temple trust were arrested after discrepancies were discovered during an offerings count. The administration acknowledged the need to strengthen procedures and ensure that income, material sales, and donations are accounted for transparently.
Sidh Baba Balak Nath is a Hindu deity widely worshipped in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir. Devotees offer ghee, flour, roats (homemade sweets), and other items at the shrine. “We are studying how other prominent temple trusts manage offerings and auctions to implement the most effective system here,” officials said.
Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner Amarjeet Singh and ADC Abhishek Garg will conduct a field inspection of the arrangements in Deotsidh after Diwali to finalise the new SOP. “The calculation of offerings will be made more transparent, and accountability will be strengthened at every level,” Garg said.
Meanwhile, old buildings at the temple are being dismantled to pave the way for a Rs 65-crore renovation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), temple officer Sandeep Chandel said. The project aims to enhance facilities for pilgrims visiting from across India and abroad.
The redevelopment plan includes an eight-storey parking lot for 250 vehicles with elevators, demolition of Sarai No. 7 to construct four floors with large halls, a four-storey building for a library, museum, and Ayurvedic hospital, and a new administration block with ramps for devotees’ convenience. Officials said the project is expected to be completed in about two to two-and-a-half years, with tenders completed and materials already arriving at the site.
