THENI: Devotees who thronged the Kannagi temple in Idukki district of Kerala on Monday to attend the annual festival in the forest shrine, urged the government to lay a pucca road and erect sheds on the way.
Two temple priests, one each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, reached the hill top temple around 4.30 am on Monday to make the preparatory works for the festival. Poojas started around 6 am at the temples of Vinayakar, Kannagidevi, Lord Sivalingam and Goddess Durgai Amman.
A group of devotees from Kerala and Tamil Nadu cooked three types of sweet pongals on the temple premises. However, a sweet pongal was made separately in a huge vessel by Kerala revenue department and distributed to the devotees.
The temple, which is 12 km from the entrance of the forest area, is in a dilapidated condition and the path to the temple is also not in a good shape.
Murugeswari, a devotee from Chinnamanur, said that the walk to the temple on the slippery stretch was difficulty and the scorching sun compounded the woes of the visitors. Government should come forward to renovate the temple and erect sheds on the way for the convenience of the devotees. A pucca road would be of great help to those coming by vehicles, she added.
Thanga Tamiselvan, MLA-Aandipatti visited the temple and performed special poojas, Ramakrishnan, DMK MLA-Cumbum also participated in the festival.
N Venkatachalam, collector of Theni, visited the temple where he was accorded a warm welcome by the priests. The Kerala government established three check-posts to frisk the vehicles and devotees with metal detectors. Over 1,000 police personnel, including anti-Naxal squad, were deployed for the festival. Mahesh, Superintendent of Police, Theni, Sanjayan Kumar, DD to Kerala state forest department and other officials were among those who visited the shrine.