Devotees sore over poor crowd management at Samayapuram Temple

Poor crowd management at Sri Mariamman Temple in Samayapuram causing distress to devotees, with long queues and lack of amenities.

Poor crowd management at Sri Mariamman Temple in Samayapuram is troubling to devotees.

Hundreds of devotees visit the temple situated on the outskirts of the city. The number of devotees visiting the temple is going up gradually in recent years. The temple, which was once a small shrine with minimum infrastructure, has added better amenities to its credit. Except on a few days, the temple is always busy with the surge of crowds.

As per the new system, there are two queues for devotees. One is for the ticket free devotees, other is for those, who paid ₹.100 for darshan. Both begin 100 metres away from the main shrine. But the devotees face severe hardship from the moment they enter the enclosed queues. With inadequate policemen or security personnel, the devotees jostle with one another to get into the queue and move forward. Several devotees mainly elders and children, find it difficult to inhale and exhale freely.

It was evident when the devotees, who thronged in large numbers to the temple on Monday. The queue complex struggled to cope up with the surging devotees. At a point of time, it witnessed a stampede-like situation especially on the free darshan queue. No policemen or security personnel of the temple came forward to manage the crowds. The devotees found it extremely difficult to manage the situation on their own.

“There is absolutely no space to stand or move freely. I could not breath freely. I am fed up with the crowd management,” says M. Saraswathi of Uppilapuram.

It took more than four hours for the devotees to have darshan. Several devotees, particularly women, elders and children, who could not stand for hours together. felt dejected. Several devotees, who felt severe hardship, wanted to go out of the queues. But, they could not.

M. Tamilselvi of Kumbakonam said that no officials or temple staff bothered to monitor the crowds. In the sweltering hot, they had to stand in queues for hours. There was no facility for drinking water. The devotees, who were desperate to attend nature’s call, could not go out of the queues.