Thousands of devotees enthusiastically participated in Swami Nellaiyappar – Gandhimathi Ambal Temple’s ‘Aani’ car festival held here on Monday after two years.
After the flag-hoisting on July 3, special prayers were offered every day, besides cultural events on the temple premises. On the 9th day of the celebration, the Vinayaka car was drawn at 12.30 a.m. and was stationed at Swami Sannidhi and the Murugan car was drawn at 2.30 a.m.
After Speaker M. Appavu, District Collector V. Vishnu, Tirunelveli Corporation Commissioner V. Sivakrishnamurthy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Tirunelveli East, V.R. Srinivasan, MLAs Nainar Nagenthran and M. Abdul Wahab, District Revenue Officer Jayashree, Deputy Mayor of Tirunelveli Corporation K.R. Raju formally inaugurated the car festival at 9.22 a.m., the exuberant devotees drew the cars with the idols of Swami Nellaiyappar, Gandhimathi Ambal, Vinayaka and Murugan along the four car streets around the shrine in Tirunelveli Town to reach the station around 7 p.m.
When the wooden block (‘thadi’) put by the devotees to steer or stop the car broke even before it crossed the Amman Sannidhi, the car had to be stopped there for over 45 minutes until a new wooden block was brought.
However, the brief interruption never dampened the spirit of the sea of devotees, who, amidst the sloganeering, drew the cars enthusiastically. Various organisations distributed water, buttermilk and the juice to the devotees as the cars were drawn.
Over 1,100 police, led by Commissioner of Police Avinash Kumar and Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, Pravesh Kumar, had been deployed to ensure elaborate security arrangements in view of the car festival, for which the district administration had declared local holiday in the district. Police had installed CCTV cameras at vantage points to check the movement of anti-social elements and made traffic diversions around Tirunelveli Town.
When two small groups of youth affiliated to different castes, who were wearing the slogans with caste overtones, picked up heated argument with the police deployed there as part of the security arrangement, mild force was used to disperse them and bring back normalcy.
Mr. Abdul Wahab and a few organisations offered free food to the devotees who participated in the car festival.
