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Palaniswami donates Rs 1L for annadhanam at Varadhar fest
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday personally contributed Rs 1 lakh to provide annadhanam (free meals) to devotees coming to have darshan of once in a 40 year, 48-day festival of Aththi Varadhar at Lord Devaraja Swamy Temple in Kancheepuram.
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By contributing Rs 1 lakh from his personal funds to meet the needs of the devotees, the Chief Minister also formally launched the scheme.
He also appealed to the public to contribute to the scheme either by cash or cheque to ‘Devarajaswamy Temple, Kancheepuram.’
Chief Minister Palaniswami also reviewed the arrangements made for the festival with higher officials, which began on July 1 and would end on August 17. So far more than 30 lakh people, from across the country and from abroad have had darshan of Aththi Varadhar and the crowd kept swelling with every passing day.
Ever since the festival began, the temple town resembled a sea of humanity with devotees flocking to the temple to have darshan of Aththi Varadhar, the next festival of this kind would occur in 2059.
Leaders skipping Kanchi visit due to poor safety steps: State BJP
Top BJP leaders are upset with safety measures in place at Kancheepuram Devarajaswamy Temple where Aththi Varadhar is currently displayed. A section of leaders in the state has also taken up the issue with the BJP leaders in Delhi resulting in the last-minute cancellation of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s scheduled visit to Kancheepuram last week, confidential Kamalalayam sources said.
A section of AIADMK leaders have recently invited the Union Finance Minister to visit the temple and reached out to the offices of Prime Minister and Home Minister inviting them to visit Kancheepuram Aththi Varadhar. However, the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are not keen on the invitation extended by the TN Ministers,sources said.
“Finance Minister had plans of having darshan of Aththi Varadhar during her visit to Chennai last week. But, when she came to know about the deaths due to poor crowd management, the Union Minister decided to avoid the temple visit. She felt that her visit as a VVIP will only add more pressure on the common devotees thronging the temple during weekends,” an informed senior BJP functionary told DT Next.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who visited the temple on Tuesday had instructed the police to intensify the safety measures and suggested bettercrowd management facilities in place.
When contacted, a senior police official on rumours that Prime Minister Modi will soon visit Kancheeepuram, the official confirmed that till now there is no enquiry from the special protection group that manages the visit of top political leaders.
It may be noted that former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan had also blamed the AIADMK government for the poor security and sanitation measures near the temple premises. Radhakrishnan has told reporters that Aththi Varadhar has started attracting thousands of pilgrims and it is the duty of the stategovernment to take careof the devotees.
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