A section of people from Mulaiyur and three other neighbouring hamlets in Natham Taluk, submitted a plea to the District Collector, M. Vijaya Lakshmi, here on Monday, seeking her intervention in conducting the local temple festival. The people alleged that due to the fight between two groups of priests over the right to perform rituals and honours at the temple, the temple festival has been stalled for the past seven years.
“Both the groups had filed cases in the court and after years of conducting the cases, no solution was arrived at. Following a court order, a peace committee meeting was also held few months ago in the presence of Natham Tahsildar, police inspector, BDO and other officials. The two groups were summoned but they refused to accept any solution,” said the people.
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“Recently, the people of four hamlets conducted a meeting and expressed their desire to conduct the temple festival and that effort also failed. We believe, the non-conduct of the festival has caused severe drought in the village. Our crops are wilting and there is no drinking water. It is our belief that the festival will bring rains. So, the Collector should take efforts to organise the festival in the coming year at least. If the priests do not arrive at a solution, the festival should be organised under the leadership of government authorities and police,” they added.