MK Stalin hits out at Edappadi K Palaniswami govt for not preserving temples

Chennai: Citing the Unesco report stating that the state government had failed to maintain historic temples, leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Wednesday urged the AIADMK (Amma) government to preserve the cultural symbols and take action on those responsible for damaging them.

He said ancient temples of the state are seen with astonishment by foreigners and ruining them would amount to destroying the history of the state. Though, DMK is a rationalist movement, its government renovated the Tiruvarur temple car without affecting its antiquity.

The DMK government also desilted the Mylapore temple tank and celebrated the centenary of Thanjavur big temple built by Chola emperor Rajarajan.

The DMK viewed the ancient temples and sculptures with a historic perspective and the HR and CE department itself was formed by its predecessor Justice Party, Stalin said.

But, under the AIADMK regime, the paintings, carvings and compound walls of world famous Madurai, Tiruvannamalai and Srirangam had been damaged due to the complacency of the government. The state government had not approached sculptors with the required knowledge while renovating the ancient temples, he said quoting the Unesco’s interim report.

The report had stated that the historic traces in thousand-year-old Naganathaswamy temple built by Chola emperor Rajendran in Manambadi in Thanjavur had been totally destroyed, he added.