Governor dedicates renovated 30 theerthams at Rameswarm

The temple originally had 64 ‘theerthams’ (holy water bodies), of which only 22 were in use while the rest got lost either due to the 1964 cyclone or encroachment. As a result of the initiatives taken by former President APJ Abdul Kalam and Vivekananda Kendra and the temple administration, 30 water sites which had got buried in the sand dunes were unearthed and renovated at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

The Governor dedicated the holy water sites after special poojas were performed at “Mangala Theertham” at Thangachimadam on this island.

The Governor said the dedication function would bring to light how the holy water sites had been retrieved. He said no pilgrimage would be complete without a visit to the Rameswaram temple. People from across the country visit the famous Ramanathasamy temple.

Purohit recalled the “Green Rameswaram” initiatives taken by Kalam. He said polythene bags played a major role in destroying the environment of the country, adding steps were being taken to eradicate plastic in a phased manner.

M Manikandan, Minister for Information Technology, K Veera Raghava Rao, Ramanathapuram Collector, Balakrishnan, vice president, Vivekananda Kendra, Vasudeo, Secretary, Green Rameswaram and others participated in the rededication function.

Earlier, the Governor participated in “Clean India” awareness programmes at Mandapam and Pattinamkathan near here. He interacted with school students and also asked them to take a pledge to keep the environment clean. The Governor also distributed cloth bags to shopkeepers to create awareness against the use of plastic.