Swamimalai temple staff transferred for troubling devotees

TIRUCHY: Two Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy temple staff members were transferred on Monday after being found to be deliberately causing inconvenience to the devotees, who stayed back during night hours as a part of their worship.

Devotees from various states used to converge at Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy temple round the clock during the ‘Karthigai Natchathiram’. On October 19, around 60 devotees, mostly children, women and senior citizens who came to the temple during late hours were seen staying at the temple mandapam. While they were fast asleep, they saw water flowing on the floor and soon, the devotees woke up and stayed awake till the morning and left the temple on the next day.

The devotees found that temple staff had poured water on the floor of the temple mandapam to ‘chase’ them away. On seeing this, a few of the devotees recorded it and showed it to the temple administration and it went viral on social media.

While, a section of devotees who approached the temple authorities, argued with them and demanded action against the temple staff who had created inconvenience to the devotees.

The temple authorities conducted a departmental inquiry in which they found that the temple staff Chinnadurai (42) and Subramanian (50) of Swamimalai were involved in the issue. On Monday, both were transferred to Sakkarapalli Sakkravageeshwarar temple with immediate effect.