Take up electrical, fire safety audit, remove shops: Association

Chennai: Calling upon the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department to take concrete steps to improve the administration of temples, the Tamil Nadu Temple Priests Welfare Association has demanded introduction of fire, electrical and safety audit in all the temples under the control of the Department.

The association which is striving for the cause of village temple priests and for effective functioning of temples, has also urged the state government to take immediate steps to remove all the shops that have been established inside the temples, in the wake of fire accident in the renowned Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple in Madurai on Friday.

“The shopkeepers resort to attractive lighting to lure the devotees to their shops inside the Meenakshi Amman temple. It is not known if the electrical cables are capable enough to cater to the numerous connections availed by the shopkeepers. We want a thorough audit of the electrical works, fire fighting equipment and funds,” P. Vasu, state president of Kovil Pusarikal Nala Sangam said. He told this correspondent that his organisation at its meeting in Coimbatore on Monday has passed a resolution urging the government to immediately remove all the shops established inside the temples.

“The entire space meant for devotees inside the temples should be made available only for them and should not be utilised to encourage mushrooming of shops, which hindered the devotees” the resolution said.

Another resolution pointed out to the plight of priests employed at the HR & CE managed temples in Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tiruppur districts who were being removed from service, and demanded job guarantee to those priests. Also, the temple officials should take steps to provide those priests identity cards.