ERODE: In an effort to highlight their protest against alleged encroachment of land belonging to the Erode Periyamariamman temple, devotees cooked pongal in front of the Mahimaleeswarar temple on Thiruvengadasamy (TVS) Street on Thursday. In the past, the temple land retrieval movement has protested against alleged encroachments by cooking pongal on the premises of the CSI school premises near the Mariamman temple. On Thursday, police allowed the protestors to stage this unique form of protest in front of the Mahimaleeswarar temple on TVS Street, which is adjacent to Brough Road where the Periyamariamman temple is located. However, town DSP Danapal objected to the protest as the devotees occupied the central portion of the street. The DSP then asked the protestors, led by Hindu Munnani vice president K Pusappan, to hold their protest within the temple. A wordy duel between the DSP and the devotees followed, leading to tension in the area for a brief period.However, the devotees refused to budge and continued to cook pongal on the road. As Pusappan put it, “When we sought permission for holding the stir, the DSP unnecessarily questioned our stand that the government land had been encroached by others. He also denied permission for the protest. Then, we approached the SP, who allowed us to carry on with the protest. But, the DSP again created trouble and asked us to cook pongal within the temple. Finally, the SP intervened and allowed us to protest peacefully.”The SP, who was present at the protest venue, said, “I did not want to create any problem for the devotees and that too, during the auspicious Panguni Uthiram and Mariamman temple annual festival. Hence, I allowed them to cook pongal in front of the Mahimaleesarar temple,” he said. They kept one pot and brought cooked pongal from outside and distributed it to the devotees, he said, while acknowledging that the protest hit traffic and created some tension in the area.Long Pending DemandThe ‘pongal’ protest by the Erode Periyamariamman temple land retrieval movement has turned out to be an annual affair. On Thursday, the movement reiterated their appeal to the government to retrieve the vast stretch of land near the temple on Brough Road that was allegedly encroached upon by a minority institution. According to the movement’s president E M R Chandrasekar, this kind of protest (cooking pongal) is organised every year in order to urge the administration to retrieve the encroached government land and use it for public purposes. Lakhs of devotees throng the temple, located on the roadside, during the month-long annual temple festival. However, the devotees are put to hardship and are forced to worship the deity standing on the road, owing to the lack of space.Although the temple’s annual income is above `1 crore, it is not able to create any facility for devotees, Chandrasekhar said, while adding, “Our plea is that a portion of the encroached land be retrieved and given for the temple to enable the devotees to reconstruct the temple.” As per information received under the RTI Act, nearly 12 acres have been encroached, he said.“Hence, the government should take speedy action to get the land,” he added.
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