TIRUNELVELI: Devotees who attended the much-celebrated Aani car festival at Nellayappar Gandhimathi Amman Temple on Friday were in for a disappointment as four ropes of the car snapped one-by-one when the car was drawn here. Subsequently, the devotees managed to draw the car, weighing 450 tonnes, using an iron chain, but blamed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Department officials for allegedly failing to arrange quality ropes for the festival.
Thousands of devotees from across Tamil Nadu had gathered at the Nellaiappar temple to take part in the Aani car festival, and the district administration and city police had made various arrangements for the devotees at the temple premises and car streets. Soon after the ropes snapped, HR&CE officials replaced one of the ropes with a new one, but another one snapped again. Following this, they arranged an iron chain to draw the 85-foot-tall temple car, and brought the ropes of Tiruchendur Subramania Swamy Temple's car to Nellaiappar temple, sources said.
The Aani car festival, which features the third largest car in Tamil Nadu, commenced on June 13 with a flag-hoisting event. District Collector KP Karthikeyan, MP-elect C Robert Bruce, MLAs Nainar Nagendran and Abdul Wahab, Tirunelveli corporation Mayor PM Saravanan and Commissioner Thakare Shubham Dnyandeorao, among others, had also visited the temple to inaugurate the car festival. As many as 1500 police personnel were deployed to avoid any untoward incidents, and a local holiday was declared for schools, colleges and government offices on Friday, sources added.