Minister in-charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar on Monday claimed that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who asked for an account of the donations collected for the Ram temple at Ayodhya, might have given donation for the temple construction but is reluctant to concede the same in public.

“He (Mr .Siddaramaiah) is making baseless allegations since he has no issues for criticising the BJP government in the State which is being adeptly run,” the Minister said.

Claiming that nobody was forcefully collecting donations for the Ayodhya temple as was being alleged, he said the donations are being accounted for. Besides the house number and signature of the house owner, the PAN number of the donor is also entered in the list of donors, and receipt was given. “People are voluntarily donating funds for the temple construction,” he replied, to queries from reporters. The accounts would be made public.

Lift restored

The Minister was speaking after handing over the carriage-cum-lift that was restored by the Mysuru railway division for assembling the chariot of Sri Chamundeshwari Temple atop the Chamundi Hills here.

Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and the temple chief priest Shashishekar Dixit were present.

The century-old temple carriage-cum-lift which was used to place the idol of the Goddess on the elevated seat in the temple chariot was in dilapidated condition and the original drawings were not available for the lift arrangement.

The temple administration led by the Chief Priest and the Mysuru MP approached the General Manager/ South Western Railway in October last during the annual inspection and sought the railways’ help restoring the lift.

The Central Workshop, Mysuru took up this task as a challenge under “deposit work” and renovated the lift. Cradle lifting mechanism was provided with locking and anti-fall arrangement and a new ladder provided with anti-skid plates and hand rail, a railway release said.

Rigidity of the structure is made thorough with additional propping arrangement and the whole unit is beautifully painted without losing its antique look. The work of the heritage structure was completed in 45 days’ time and the temple team led by the Chief Priest inspected the same for its smooth operational requirements and expressed their satisfaction, according to the railways.

The new manually-operated crane manufactured at Mechanical Millwright Shop of South Western Railwayweighs anywhere between five to six tonnes and is 5.5-metre high. It has a capacity to lift 300 kg.