Disappointed with management of Leonora Mandir

May 03, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
We are a few dedicated devotees of Leonora Mandir, who wish to speak out against the ill treatment we have received and have been receiving at the hands of the management of the temple.
We recently read an article in your newspaper whereby a devotee was calling on the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sahba to take over the management of Leonora Temple and now feel motivated to share our story about this temple too.

We fully agree with this move if it ever has to materialise. Back in the days when Leonora Temple was one of the best in this country, we used to feel very proud to be members of this temple. Although our members are responsible for electing the management of the temple, we feel that the current members who we elected have been taking advantage of us and our temple resources and bringing this temple into disrepute.

Last year during a function which was held at our temple, our management disgraced us so badly that we can hang our heads in shame over this incident. The members created a mass of confusion and refused to allow use of some of the mandir utensils and puja items. Now tell us isn’t this shameful and disgraceful on part of Leonora Mandir? This was only one of the many incidents where these people have given our temple a very bad name.

The people are behaving like they own this temple. They fail to realise that other members like ourselves have wholeheartedly donated items in cash and kind in order to enable all members to conduct their worship ceremonies in comfort; nothing was ever meant to be hoarded and held from the members who wish to use our mandir for functions.

We feel that if the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha takes over our mandir, then we will have a more organised structure and our mandir will be back as one of the best in the country. We welcome the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha to cover our temple with its wings and protect our sacred religion from being disgraced by these few people who claim to be in charge of Leonora Mandir.
B. Singh, K. Kowtwal, R. Panday, S. Laxman, K. Singh