Collector stops darshan fee collection at T’malai temple

TIRUVANNAMALAI: Collector B Murugesh was forced to intervene and put a stop to the collection of Rs 50 as fee for special darshan at the Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple as officials on Sunday continued to charge devotees ignoring the orders of HR&CE minister PK Sekarbabu. In an effort to ensure that all devotees, who descend on the temple town for the pournami girivalam, get darshan of the presiding deity at the temple, the HR&CE minister Sekarbabu ordered to stop the collection of Rs 50 as fee with immediate effect. However, devotees on Sunday were shocked when officials set up barricades to create space for a table and collected fee for the darshan. When devotees pointed to the minister’s order – which was given wide publicity – officials replied that visitors had to pay a fee as Pournami started only that night when they would be allowed free darshan. The information about the officials’ insistence reached collector B Murugesh, he immediately ordered temple staff to stop the collection. “Though the temple received around Rs 1.32 crore annually through sale of special darshan tickets, the minister ordered that sale of such tickets be stopped so that more people can have darshan of the deity every day,” a temple official said. “Such measures are a part of Rs 78-crore master plan to provide additional facilities for devotees in the town,” the official said and added that prasad from 10 different temples in TN was being sold under a special scheme through the special counters operating along the girivalam path.