Hyderabad:Groups in temple clash

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at the Lakshmi Narsimha Swamy temple, NBT Nagar, near Banjara Hills Road Number 12 after members from the Hare Krishna Movement tried to demolish temples.

According to sources, Mr. Ravilochana Das and Laxmikanth Das with some others from the Hare Krishna Movement, arrived at the spot in the wee hours of Friday with a proclainer and started demolishing the existing Swayambhoo Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy and Lord Shiva temples.

The locals started arguing with members of the Hare Krishna Movement and a scuffle ensued. Police had to resort to a minor lathi charge to control the situation. Locals claimed that since the closure of these temples, there have been deaths in the homes nearby.

Nearly 40 youth have died due to several reasons in the past six months. Locals believe they have been cursed due to the closure of swayambhoo temples.
Ms. Gadwala Vijayalakshmi, a local corporator, who rushed to the spot for supporting locals, told DC that the Hare Krishna Movement was acting against a committee report submitted to the government earlier.

“The committee warned the Hare Krishna Movement to not disturb the existing structures in order to renovate them,” she said. She said that since October, 2015, they have been trying to reopen the temple. “When the committee submitted the report, representatives from the Hare Krishna Movement promised to re-open the temple on February 29, 2016.

As they did not keep the promise, we approached endowment commissioner and minister I.K. Reddy and urged them to take initiative to reopen the temple by Shivratri. As they failed to open it, we planned to perform pujas on Friday in connection with Ugadi. But, they started demolishing the temple,” she said.