The Odisha government is all set to launch an Integrated Temple Management System (ITMS) on the lines of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu government to facilitate online darshan for the devotees.
When developed, the portal will be used as a one-stop-shop for all the devotees who would wish to avail darshan, perform puja and order Prasad from any temple in the State covered by the ITMS.
Apart from that, the devotees can find schedule of the temples, their opening and closing time and other religious rituals in the system.
Those who wish to donate to any temple/temples can do so through the portal as well.
A government notification read, "The ITMS is proposed to be a multi-lingual (Odia, Hindi & English) dynamic and user friendly web-portal having global accessibility which would help devotees/pilgrims to book all the services offered in the Temple online like darsan/pooja/Prasad Sevan through Internet."
"ITMS would also facilitate knowledge about the History of the Temple, facilities available in the Temple, details of the Temple rituals and special festivals, route map and location of the Temple, properties of the Temple, contact number of the Temple management and etc," the notice read.
As per reports, the deposit accounts of the temples will be hosted by a PSU bank and the payment gateway which will be integrated in the ITMS portal for donations will be provided by HDFC bank.
Speaking about the development, Odisha Law Minister, Jagannath Saraka said, “This is a good step by the government to introduce a web portal for devotees. Lakhs of devotees both from the State and outside would benefit from it.”
“Srimandir in Puri will also be added in the ITMS portal in a later stage,” Saraka informed.
Pertinent to mention here that the Karnataka government had launched the ‘Integrated Temple Management System’ in March this year to keep record of the pilgrims visiting the temples in state. The system is developed by NIC Tamil Nadu and customised for Karnataka to facilitate monitoring of details related to the temples, online temple services to citizens, revenue collection from temple properties, dashboard services etc.
The Uttar Pradesh government is also studying the integrated temple management systems (ITMS) in use in Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, among other parts of the country, to develop its own system. As per reports, UP has decided to develop a website with a dynamic page and interactive icons to make it more appealing for the devotees.