MAYILADUTHURAI : A day after TNIE's report carrying requests from the public for filling up the Kaveri Thula Kattam for Masi Magam, Mayiladuthurai municipality sprang into action to fill up the bathing ghat of River Cauvery to about ankle-level, enabling hundreds of devotees to perform rituals in it during the festival on Saturday.
TNIE in its report, ‘Pump water into Kaviri Thula Kattam for Masi Magam festival’ in the edition dated February 23, 2024, highlighted the requests to the municipality to pump water for Masi Magam akin to how it was done for the Aippasi Thula Utsavam last year. Masi Magam is an auspicious Tamil festival when devotees believe that their ancestors visit them. The Kaveri Thula Kattam has religious significance attached to it, as part of which it also hosted the Kaveri Maha Pushkaram in 2017 when about a lakh devotees descended to be ‘cleansed of their sins'.
Accordingly, in the early hours of Saturday, the municipality started filling up the bathing ghat by pumping groundwater from one of the borewells in the waterbody. The water welled up in the Thula Kattam to about ankle-level. "We decided to pump water for a day like we did in the past. We cleared the mounds of waste on the banks and then pumped the water. Around 3 MLD (million litres per day) of water may have been pumped out to fill up the ghat for the occasion," Municipality Commissioner A Sankar told TNIE.
Earlier, the public works department (PWD) ruled out the possibility of releasing River Cauvery water into the Kaveri Thula Kattam for Masi Magam as the release from Kallanai (Grand Anaicut) dam is zero. As news spread about the availability of water in the ghat, hundreds residing in the town and nearby villages nearby on Saturday thronged its steps with priests and performed rituals for their ancestors. They also bathed by standing below the pipeline carrying water into the ghat as well as in the ghat itself. Locals conveyed their gratitude to TNIE for highlighting their requests. Meanwhile, Collector AP Mahabharathi directed municipality officials to ensure the items left behind on the river banks after the rituals were cleared.