MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday banned people from carrying mobile phones inside the world famous Meenakshi Amman temple where a fire accident had badly damaged the ‘Sri Veeravasantharayar Mandapam’ last week. A division bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and R. Tharani also banned the usage of plastic inside the temple besides directing the expert committee to examine the stability of the entire temple structure.
The state government constituted this expert committee recently to assist temple authorities for the renovation of 'Veeravasantharayar Mandapam'. The judges also directed the authorities to train the temple staff to handle fire safety equipment. The court issued this direction while hearing a petition filed by advocate Muthukumar from Madurai who sought a direction to the government to form a high level committee to monitor the security and renovation work in the temple, and also to take action against officials who were responsible for the unfortunate fire accident in the temple on February 2.
