Madurai city and district police have geared up for the Muthuramalinga Thevar jayanthi and guru puja scheduled on Friday.
The police units have started deploying their force in all important junctions and main thoroughfares for the two-day event to be held on Thursday and Friday at Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district.
The city police have posted some 2,000 police personnel in all important junctions. All the 46 statues of caste leaders have been provided security round-the-clock. They have also increased the number of patrolling teams for the occasion.
Additional police force would be deployed at the Goripalayam junction where hundreds of people would gather to garland the bronze statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar and also perform milk abishekam. “The statue would be cordoned off with barricades and parking of vehicles would not be allowed at the junction,” a police officer said.
In order to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic on the important junction, the police have instructed those taking out processions with milk pots and sprouts to complete their activity by 9 a.m., well before the peak-hour vehicular movement picks up. The police have strictly banned two-wheeler processions.
CCTVs
The district police have mobilised over 2,000 policemen and formed 95 mobile units to patrol the important stretches of roads where hundreds of vehicles would be on the move to Pasumpon and on the return direction also. Besides 70 two-wheeler patrols, the district police have deployed 37 Quick Reaction Teams to respond immediately to any untoward incident. The police have put up 20 check posts around the district’s boundaries. Important check-posts have been strengthened with closed-circuit television cameras. Besides, all the vehicles passing through the check-posts will be videographed.
“The Regional Transport Officers would provide online verification system for verifying the genuineness of the registration numbers of vehicles (to identify whether any hired vehicles are clandestinely used to ferry people to Pasumpon),” the Superintendent of Police, Vijayendra Bidari, said.
The police in the entire southern districts are put on high alert every year, following the 2012 incident of hurling petrol bombs at a vehicle carrying 20 persons returning home from Pasumpon at Puliyankulam near Madurai district. Seven persons were charred to death in the incident that occurred late in the night of October 30.
Liquor bottles seized
Meanwhile, the city and the rural police have seized over 2,750 liquor bottles that were kept for illegal sale in Tirupparankundram, Alanganallur and Vadipatti. The police have detained three persons in this connection.
The city Prohibition Enforcement Wing Inspector of Police, P. Raghuraman, raided a secluded place in Tirupparankundram and seized over 2,000 bottles. The police also arrested Karuppasamy, who wanted to make the most during the four days of dry day between October 27 and 30 announced in view of Thevar jayanthi.
Similarly, the district police raided several places and seized 750 bottles from Alanganallur, Karumathur, Vadipatti, Nagamalai Pudukottai and Keelaiyur.
