Fire damages mandapam in Meenakshi temple

Madurai: The popular 15th century Veeravasantharayar mandapam in Meenakshi Amman temple suffered extensive damage following the big fire that broke out there on Friday night. The blaze also gutted 42 shops. 

“The fire had damaged the stone pillars and the top stone structure of the mandapam has also fallen down due to heat in a few places,” said N. Subramanian, district fire officer (in-charge) from Fire Safety and Rescue Service, Madurai, adding that stocking of flammable items including pooja items, toys and plastic items had caused a blast like impact on the mandapam.
Nearly 7,000 square feet inside the 15th century mandapam was damaged in the fire. 

As it would take next two days for the heat to subdue inside the mandapam, the police personnel were deployed at its two entrances to prevent people from entering inside. “It is possible to remove the debris only after assessing the damages and taking safety precautions to enter inside the mandapam because the stone structure damaged in fire might fall down at any time,” said a senior police officer. 

District collector Veera Raghava Rao said that special team comprising revenue and temple officials had conducted loss assessment.

“We will soon conduct fire and safety audit in the temple,” he said adding that they were waiting for police investigation report to know about the cause of the fire accident.

Agitated by this incident, the public demanded the temple authorities to shift the shops outside the temple premises.  “The shops which is meant to sell pooja items to devotees, have now started selling toys and other fancy items with commercial motive,” said Katharesan, a local.

However sources in the temple said that they have been regularly conducting inspection and taking appropriate action against shops for violations. 

About 100 shops have been functioning on the premises for nearly a century. 
“An expert committee will examine this incident soon. We will take further action based on its recommendations,” the source added.

Meanwhile the temple administration conducted parihara pooja between 6.30 am and 8.00 am in the temple in view of the incident.  They also ensured that the devotees’ visit to the temple was not affected on Saturday.  

State government must give up  control over temples, says HM

Alleging that the fire mishap at the thousand pillared mandapam of the renowned Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple, Madurai, is an “instance of the inept administration” of the Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR & CE) department, the Hindu Munnani has demanded action against the authorities for “failure” to take preventive measures to avoid the fire mishap at the Madurai Meenakshi temple.

 “The Tamil Nadu government should take appropriate action against those responsible  for the failure to take preventive steps to avoid fire mishap at the Meenakshi temple,” Ramagopalan founder-convenor of Hindu Munnani, insisted on Saturday. He reiterated his organisation’s long pending demand that the government should relinquish its administrative control over all the Hindu temples and said the shrines should administered by an independent body free from State control.

Mr Ramagopalan wondered why a secular government wanted to control temples. Turning to Friday's incident, he said, considering safety meters, no shop should be allowed to function within the temple precincts. He claimed that no mechanism was in place to tackle such an emergency situation and added that his showed the level of deterioration of administration by the HR and CE. “The blaze at the Madurai Meenakshi temple is an example of the inept administration by the HR & CE,” Mr Ramagopalan, said. Rejecting the Hindu Munnani’s demand for privatising the temple administration in the state, law minister C. V. Shanmugam said “let the states ruled by the BJP give up their hold over temple administration first.”