TENKASI: Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department Minister Sekar Babu on Thursday said the Sankaranarayanaswami temple in Sankarankovil will be renovated at an outlay of Rs 7.5 crore and that the Kumbabishekam, which was last held in 1996, will be conducted by 2023.
Addressing the media persons in Sankarankovil, Babu said after it came to power, the DMK government had held Kumbabishekam at 500 temples. "The Kumbabishekam is particularly conducted in temples that are over 1000 years old. We inspected various parts of the Sankaranarayanan temple and found that the Kumbabishekam had not been conducted here for the past 26 years.
Hence, we will renovate this temple at an outlay of Rs 7.5 crore and conduct the Kumbabishekam this year. Regarding the temple elephant, we cannot bring the animal to the temple directly as per the rules of the forest department. However, if anyone is willing to donate an elephant to the temple, we are ready to accept it," the Minister said.
He added that Chief Minister M K Stalin had allocated Rs 100 crores for holding Kumbabishekam in 1,000-year-old temples. "We have identified 509 temples across Tamil Nadu for renovation works. We will complete works in 112 temples by this year. We are also planning to seek more funds from the Chief Minister for such activities," he added.
Responding to a question on 'cow-hug-day', the Minister said no government order can prevent those who have been celebrating Valentine's Day for years. District Collector Durai Ravichandran, Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko, and MLAs E Raja and Sathan Thirumalaikumar were present. The Minister also visited the Nellaiappar temple in Tirunelveli.