Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana announced by Arvind Kejriwal for Hindus and Sikh priests

The former CM of Delhi said the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana registration will begin on Tuesday.

On Monday, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a new scheme offering a monthly honorarium of ₹18,000 to Hindu and Sikh priests. He said that registration for the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana will begin on Tuesday.

Arvind Kejriwal announced a new scheme for Hindu and Sikh priests.

Arvind Kejriwal, amid a massive row over a scheme promising a monthly stipend to unemployed women, on Monday announced a new scheme for Hindu and Sikh priests, the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana, that promises ₹18,000 monthly. Registration will begin on Tuesday. He said at a press conference, “Today, I am making an important announcement regarding a scheme. The name of the scheme is Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana. Under this, there is a provision to give an honorarium to the priests of temples and the ‘granthis’ of the Gurudwara. They will be given an honorarium of about ₹18,000 per month. This is happening for the first time in the country. The priest is a class that has carried forward the rituals from generation to generation. They never paid attention to their family, and we never paid attention to them.”

Registration of the new scheme begins on Tuesday.

Arvind Kejriwal said he would kickstart the scheme after visiting the Hanuman Temple in Delhi’s Connaught Place. He said, “Registration for this scheme will begin tomorrow. I will be visiting Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place tomorrow to start the registration of this scheme.”

Earlier this month, Kejriwal had also started the Mahila Samman scheme, offering unemployed women a stipend of ₹2100 per month. However, the next day, the government’s women and child development (WCD) department advertised that the “Mahila Samman” scheme was “non-existent” and urged residents not to share personal data.