Chennai: Dejected over the absence of a modern crematorium at Palladam for years, locals have approached the Madras high court seeking a direction to the authorities to grant them permission to hold a novel demonstration in a temple to highlight their demand.
They have planned to conduct a peaceful padayatra from Palladam in Tiruppur district to Sri Maasani Amman temple in Pollachi taluk, Coimbatore district. They have sought permission to perform the age-old ritual of pasting chilli paste, ground at the temple and apply it on ‘Needhikkal’ (stone of justice), said A. Annadurai, petitioner.
He said “after their wish is fulfilled, the villagers would return to the temple and pour gingelly oil over the stone as a mark of thanks giving to the Goddess”. The people were fighting for a modern crematorium at Palladam. At present, dead bodies were being carried for nearly 16 km long to reach two Tirupur Corporation electric crematoriums. On several occasions, dead bodies were returned citing lack of time and space.
The Palladam Rotary Club formed the Palladam Rotary Electric Crematorium Trust. On April 17, 2008, the trust came forward to give money up to Rs 3 crore for the purpose.
Petitioner's counsel, M. Purushothaman, said the people had filed three writ petitions in the past. As their grievance had not been redressed, they filed the present petition seeking a direction to the SPs of Tiruppur and Coimbatore to permit them to undertake the padayatra and perform the ritual. Justice M. M. Sundresh on Monday directed the two SPs to permit padayatra from Sri Masani Amman temple to Aanamalai town subject to the condition that the petitioner and others would abide by other conditions and directions of police. The SPs were allowed to fix the procession time.
