Members of Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu organisations staged a demonstration against the State government in general and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department in particular here on Sunday, saying their inefficiency and ignorance led to the fire at Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple on Friday night.
About 300 men and women from organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Temple Protection Committee, Anithu Ina Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam and Hindu Youth Sena were part of the protest. Chants were raised alleging the negligence by temple authorities. “What is the reason for the fire?” they asked. They demanded a closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident to be available for public view.
BJP State secretary R. Srinivasan called for resignation of HR and CE Minister Sevoor S. Ramachandran. The temple security must be handed over to Central Reserve Police Force (CPRF), he said. C. Sasiraman, district president, said shops on the temple premises must be removed.
The HR and CE department was using temples as ‘property.’ It had been minting money by way of rent from shops, he said and added that devotees should not be charged for special darshans.
