Ganesha the encrocher

'Ganesha' the encroacher

The Kurumbur railway station is about a mile from the village but it falls within the ambit of the village panchayat.It’s is very old station and was in the news in the British era when freedom fighters set it on fire to protest British rule in India.

Some say 70 years ago and some say a 100 years ago a Ganesha idol was placed opposite the station in front of the railway quarters there. At that time a peepul tree and neem tree were planted as is the norm when a Ganesha idol is installed.

As the years rolled on and India achieved freedom, the railway staff stopped staying here, though three pairs of trains did pass through from Tirunelveli to Tiruchendur. It was a meter gauge track and in the early days a coal engine pulled the train along.

This gave away to a diesel engine in recent times. The railway quarters were now in ruins and a lot of iron pipes were lying outside these quarters for decades. The Ganesha idol was set in the shade of a snake hood and thus called Naga Ganesha. Hardly anyone prayed to him anymore. He was neglected. Idayanvillai Nadar who stayed next door did not like it. The scriptures said That you worshipped God regularly or kept the idol underwater.

After much thought and hesitation, one day he picked up Ganesha and threw him into his well.Ganesha lay there for many years. Meanwhile the meter gauge train came to a halt. Broad gauge line was laid and this September, 2008 the first broad gauge train started service.

The station staff who had not been here for 2 years came on duty. They saw that a new Ganesha had been placed under the shade of the Peepul tree. They did not pay heed.On Ganesh Chathurthi day locals started building a temple for Ganesha around him. The railway staff sent a letter to the higher ups that there was an unauthorized temple being constructed on railway property.

On 10^th October, 2008 Inspector Sunil Singh of the Railway police came to Kurumbur to check the temple with a sub inspector and a head constable. They were told that DMK Senthil was constructing the temple.

They found him and he said It is a public temple, I was asked to build it by the public who have donated bricks, cement, sand and money'. He took them to the Panchayat President who is actually not the President but her husband. So much for empowering women.

Murugesapandian told the Inspector, We are not building any new temple. That is a 70 year old temple which we are renovating. By the time Kannan had gone on his bike to fetch Ganesh who was a journalist. When Ganesh met the Inspector they told him, We came here to investigate the matter, we will have to demolish this temple as you have constructed it without permission.

Ganesh argued, There are Ganesha temples in Tuticorin station, Tiruchendur station and Armuganeri station. The inspector replied,Those were constructed with permission, you obtain permission from the Divisional Railways Manager in Madurai and all will be fine. Make sure your petition is signed by lots of people he added.

So immediately a petition was written and ten boys were deputed to get signatures from the surrounding areas. Only in PanickaNadarKudieruppu the signatures were obtained by 70 year old Maharajah Nadar as he was a man of religious fervour.

Kannan brought a newspaper that was ten days old to show to Ganesh. It was a local Tamil daily which carried an article on the illegal encroachment. The article said that the public wanted the temple removed.

It did not mention who the public were. The villagers decided that the public meant the Evangelist Mohan Lazarus who was building a multi crore church a few feet away. The hall he was building was meant to house 50,000 devotees at a time.

To add fuel to the fire both Murugesapandian and Kamaraj related that Selvakumar who is the manager in the Jesus redeems trust had phoned them to ask Why are you building a Ganesha temple near our church, you just want to cause us problems?

Kamaraj had replied, When you built your first prayer hall thirty years ago next to the Pudhur Muniyasamy temple did we object?.

Muruguseapandian in his own way said, We are renovating and not building a new temple. Moreover how can a Ganesha in a 300 square feet area cause problems to a prayer hall that is being built on 7 acres of land with a built up area of 1600 square meters'.

Ganesh asked Murugesapandian, How do you know the exact area? They are building plan attracted a tax of 80,000/- rupees six years back when the rate was 5/- rupees a sq. meter.

The building plan was found and it was discovered that it was meant to be two floors high. But the construction was now going on, on the fifth floor.

On the night of October 10^th at 1 am there was a knock on Murugesapandians door. It was the cops. They told him that the Srivaikuntam DSP wanted to see him.

Murugesapandian went with them and at the same time phoned Senthil, Radhakrishnan, Kamaraj and Ganesh.

The DSP was sitting opposite the Ganesha temple on the steps of the railway station. Will you remove the temple or should we do the needful? he asked. Murugesapandian said with folded hands, You please remove it.

By the time Senthil came with 5 people. Radhakrishnan came with ten people and Selvam went to get Ganesh.

A big argument broke out between the cops and the people.Ganesh reached the spot at 2 am. By
that time the Tiruchendur Tahsildhar, the local revenue inspector and the village Thalayari were all there. A strong contingent of cops was also there.

Ganesh asked the DSP if what he was doing was illegal. Certainly not, the temple is illegal, by removing it we are doing what is right. In that case why are you doing it in the middle of the night like as if you are doing something criminally wrong?.

The DSP told Ganesh, We are here to provide bandobast, it is the revenue people who are going to demolish, you talk to them. Amazing that in a state which opposed Hindi they used the word bandobast everywhere.

The Tahsildhar agreed that the peepul tree was atleast 70 years old and therefore the Ganesha idol was very old. But what you are doing is wrong he said. He then talked to the district Collector.
Ganesh also called the district Collector, Sir! Whatever you do is fine with us. Just do it in the day time he requested.

The Collector replied, The Tahsildhar is a very efficient man and just, he will do what is right and inform me, you dont worry.

Meanwhile the District Superintendant of Police Deepak Damor arrived. Kamaraj told him,Mohan Lazarus is my cousin, he has built so many prayer halls, we did not object and so why is he objecting to this?'. The SP denied that Mohan Lazarus had anything to do with this.

Kamaraj told him that the topic had been discussed by him and Mohan Lazarus’ manager. We are cousins and so we will settle this matter amicably concluded Kamaraj. This is public property, it is not for you and your cousin to settle said the SP firmly.

He told the assembled people to maintain the status quo. He told Murugesapandian to remove all the bricks, sand and cement near the temple and not to complete building the temple.

He said, This is railway property and so the Collector and the railway authority would decide what to do

Till then the SP told the Kurumbur police station inspector to maintain a 24 hour vigil on the temple so that nobody built it or demolished it.

The Government officials left and then the people.

Next day morning Murugesapandian took the prayer hall plans to the Block Development Officer in Thenthirperai. He told him that the plan and the real structure that was coming up had nothing in common.

The BDO immediately sent a notice to Mohan Lazarus and his trust Jesus redeems that their construction activity was illegal and not sanctioned by the Panchayat, thus they had to explain what they were doing and all construction activity had to stop immediately.

He told Murugesapandian that he would send him  a letter which asked him to take legal action against the prayer hall construction.

Murugesapandian called Ganesh to tell him what was happening. Ganesh told him, I am writing my blog.

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