Priests threaten to stall car festival

[Ian David]

Priests threaten to stall car festival
Thursday July 12 2007 13:25 IST

CHAMARAJANAGAR: Priests and employees of Sri Chamarajeshwara temple, who have been denied wages for more than a decade, have threatened to stall the 200-year-old Sri Chamarajeshwara car festival.

Though it is customary that priests conduct preliminary Rathachalana puja one month prior to the car festival, the staff, disillusioned over the apathy of the government for years, have not conducted the puja to mark the preparations for the car festival.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner to fulfil their demands or treat the memorandum as their resignation letter. The staff also decided not to take part in the car festival to be attended by thousands of devotees from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu scheduled on July 28.

The priests charged that they had submitted innumerable memoranda to successive governments, district in-charge ministers and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who recently visited the temple to offer homa.


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http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20070712030333&Page=K&Title=Southern+News+-+Karnataka&Topic=0