Devotees offering worship at Sri Saneeswarar temple in Tirunallar near here consider a dip in the temple tank a sacred ritual to get the blessings of Lord Saturn.
They abandon their clothes with which they take the dip. A good part of these clothes fetch revenue to the temple every year. The revenue is at its peak during the year when the ‘Sani Peyarchi’ festival, the periodical seven-and-a-half-year transit of the Lord Saturn, falls.
Disposing of the waste clothes poses a challenge to the temple authorities who have to ensure health and hygiene at the tank as hundreds of devotees take a dip on weekdays and thousands on Saturdays and Sundays. However, the temple earns revenue in the process of disposing of the abandoned clothes.
An open auction is held every year for leasing the responsibility of collecting these clothes from the tank. During the course of the auction held on Wednesday, bidders vied with one another in their bids at the auction that lasted for about half-an-hour. The successful bidder offered Rs.25.52 lakh for collecting the clothes from the tank.
“We ensure cleanliness of the tank. The terms and conditions of the auction are quite strict. We can withdraw the lease in case the conditions are violated,” say the temple authorities. The conditions, among other things, stipulate that the tank should be cleaned periodically with adequate number of labourers. In case of shortage of labourers, fine will be collected from the bidder.
Last year saw the ‘Sani Peyarchi’ festival and obviously the revenue from the auction was more, at Rs. 30 lakh, say the sources.
The auction process relieves the temple authorities from the problem of disposing of the clothes abandoned by the devotees. A group of labourers collect these clothes. “We feel clothes at our feet and collect them,” says S. Subramanian, one of the labourers. He says a labourer gets Rs.450 a day for collecting the clothes. “Continuous walk in the waters for about eight to nine hours a day causes ulcer in our legs and hands,” he says showing the ulcers. The labourers said that they should be covered under special medical coverage scheme periodically.
Further, the auctioneer picks up only good clothes to be re-sold at the retail outlets in metros particularly Chennai. “Waste clothes particularly undergarments are dumped at open fields at Subbaraya Nagar, about three km from Tirunallar,” the labourers say. This causes pollution and affects the groundwater table in the area.
Temple authorities and bidders said that till recent years, the leases used to burn the waste clothes. But, due to strict enforcement of norms by the Pollution Control Board, they are being dumped in the open ground. The only solace is that the open ground is located at an isolated area.
