Uneasy calm prevails at Nanjanad near here because of a long-pending dispute between two groups of Badagas over who should perform puja at Sri Nanjundeswarar Temple.
A small group of Badagas performed the puja on Wednesday under strong police presence and in the face of resistance from a larger group that insisted that only those with a particular lineage should perform the puja.
A large contingent of police led by the Nilgiris Superintendent S. Nizamuddin kept the warring groups apart and even removed 170 members of the section that opposed the puja on Wednesday.
Mr. Nizamuddin told The Hindu that ever since the temple came into existence in 1987, the right to perform pujas had been a dispute between the two groups.
In May 1988, the Revenue Divisional Officer of Coonoor had put in place an arrangement by which both the groups could perform pujas at different times in the morning and evening. It, however, failed to resolve the problem.
Subsequently, efforts by revenue officials, the police and local panchayats to find a lasting solution had also failed.
Led by S. Sivaraman, the smaller group moved the Madras High Court, which ruled that the arrangement of the revenue authorities should be followed till the two groups resolved the problem.
A petition filed against this by the majority group in the Supreme Court was dismissed recently. It had led to the members of Mr. Sivaraman's group gathering at the Collectorate on Tuesday and urging the authorities to implement the court order. Accordingly, permission was given for the puja to be performed on Wednesday.
The majority group, however, tried to resist this. Those removed from the temple area included a large number of women. They were released later.
Mr. Nizamuddin said police pickets had been posted in the village and these would remain till tension eased.
