Hyderabad, Telangana:
Religious chants can be heard these days at Indira Park -- the "dharna chowk" of Hyderabad. Predictably, they are not part of rituals, but protests from hundreds of temple priests, who are on a strike for the last eight days.
These priests, who work at around 670 small temples controlled by the government's endowment department, demand a salary on par with government employees. The money, they also insist, should be paid by the treasury.
Currently, the salary for the priests comes from the endowment department, which is meant to administer and protect the state's temples and charitable institutions. But it is routed through the temple administrations.
The government, which had agreed to a wage hike for priests after a two-day strike in June, has not agreed to the fresh demands. The priests say the government is way past the August deadline it promised to address their concerns.
Santosh Sharma, a priest, explained the reason for the fresh stir by around 6,000 priests and temple employees.
"I have been working in the temple for the last 15 years but my salary is only Rs 6,000. Why shouldn't I be paid government salary from treasury?" he said.
"There are 6,000 people working in the endowment temples but only 300 are getting a government salary. The rest should also get that," said Mr Krishnamachari, a temple employee.
"From 4 in the morning till 10 at night, we serve God and the devotees, perform pujas for everyone. But who gets the benefit? People who sit in air-conditioned offices," said Girish Kulkarni, a priest at Chikkadpally's famous Balaji temple.
"We may get Rs. 10 from a devotee, but how much does milk cost for instance? We can't even send our children to a proper school, and can only teach them the Vedas. There is no other choice, since we cannot afford it," he added.