The Hindu religious and charitable endowments department has proposed to put in place a strict safety mechanism to avert mishaps during the conduct of car festivals at the temples in future.
“While reminding the temple executive officers or Thakkars (fit persons) to strictly implement in letter and spirit the earlier circulars on the smooth conduct of the festival including the precautionary measures to be taken, the department has issued fresh instructions to the officials,” a senior official told DC on Thursday.
Officials have been told to ensure the electricity board switched off the power on the four major streets around the temple.
“We are considering a proposal to ask the EB to lay underground power cables on all the four important streets of the temple on which the decorated car is pulled by the devotees.
This would prevent any electrical mishap,” he said. Also, the officials were told to take third party insurance and also ensure that the rope used to pull the chariot is short and to disallow crowding on the sides of the car.
The fresh instructions followed the unexpected tragic mishaps during the car festivals at the Sri Karupuleswarar temple, Nellurpettai village near Gudiyatham in Vellore district and at the ancient Aranikottai Kailasanathar temple at Arani town in Tiruvannamalai district.
The electrocution at Gudiyatham was totally unexpected. The man helping in steering the chariot wrongly placed the Theerkattai (wooden log used to maneuver the car) during the heavy downpour and as a result the chariot went off the track leading to the electrocution.