Khammam: Chanting of “Rama Narayana” in the Nitya Kalyanam of Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple in Bhadrachalam and other issues have triggered a row between the employees, including priests, and the executive officer. With the employee bifurcation in the state being a sensitive issue, the row is likely to spark yet another controversy as the temple staff, led by T-NGOs, is up in arms against M. Raghunath, the EO, who belongs to Andhra region.
While ensuring that rituals continued unhampered in the sanctum sanctorum, the priests and employees abstained from their duties and staged a protest on Wednesday, demanding the transfer of the EO on account of harassment and interfering in temple rituals. The staff contended that the EO had been meddling with their duties apart from shuffling them needlessly and entrusting additional duties. They also alleged that he had been issuing memos without any reason.
It’s learnt that the EO had been at loggerheads with the priests over chanting of “Rama Narayana” during the Nitya Kalyanam sevas. Priests said the EO has no right to intrude into the affairs of rituals. They said it has been in practice for ages and there is nothing wrong in calling Lord Rama as Rama Narayanudu. When this newspaper contacted him, the EO said: “The chanting of ‘Rama Narayana’ is uncalled for and it may hurt the sentiments of a few sections of devotees.”
He added that he was being targeted by a few employees who had been forced to repay '12 lakh that they had misappropriated from temple funds. Moreover, the issue of using ‘Rama Narayana’ had already been reported to endowments commissioner N. Mukteeswar Rao, who has recently retired. Both parties claim that it was up to the Dharmika Parishad to decide whether the practice was right or wrong.
