MADURAI : Authorities of the Palani Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple told the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that necessary arrangements, including deploying 1,800 police personnel, have been made for the Panguni Uthiram festival, scheduled to be held on Sunday.
Responding to the court’s queries on a batch of petitions, including a contempt petition, filed to remove encroachments on the temple’s girivalam path, the standing counsel appearing for the devasthanam told a bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and R Vijayakumar that nearly 1,800 police personnel have been deployed to regulate traffic, and maintain law and order in and around the temple.
Due to the recent steps taken to remove encroachments in the giriveedhi, including banning the entry of private vehicles on the said path, the temple administration has made alternative arrangements for parking facilities for devotees.
For this, the Palani municipality has agreed to hand over two parcels of municipality land, measuring 30 cents (near Balaji Roundtana area) and 12 cents (near Consolidated Tonsure Mandapam) till the festival is over.
Once the festival concludes, the said pieces of land would be leased out to the temple administration for future use as well, the municipality standing counsel told the court.
With regards to the tender process for operating buses in giriveedhi, the counsel for the devasthanam submitted that the tender process would be completed and buses would operate by the next hearing date. The matter was adjourned to March 26.