Kapali Temple Staff Suspension

In an unprecedented move, Kapaleeswarar temple JC Kavenitha has suspended four staffers including the long standing Maniyakaarar.

The long Vasantha Utsavam is just under 36 hours away and on a hot Friday afternoon, Kavenitha, who took over from Hariharan last June, is busy looking into the audit papers for records and accounts. One does not often hear of a suspension of multiple members in one go at a HRCE temple and definitely it has not been seen at the Kapaleeswarar temple in the past. 

An angry JC told this writer at the temple complex that she is tightening the screws at the temple and getting the staff to create registers and records for every activity. These staff members have focused far too much on taking care of VIPs. In the first Panguni Utsavam that she experienced recently at the Kapaleeswarar temple, she found many shortcomings and this led to the suspension of the staffers “The post of Maniyakaarar is not just one of power but of great responsibility. I found that there were no registers maintained for any abhisekam or ubayam. There were unnecessary additions to pandals around the Mada Streets during the Panguni Utsavam, many of which were without official permission”, she said explaining the reason behind the suspension of Thirunavukarasu, the maniyakaarar who had been holding this post for over a decade at this temple.

This writer had featured a story on Kumaraswamy following his appointment as Thiru Chinnam at the temple a couple of years ago. The JC told this writer that she has also suspended him pending enquiry for not carrying out the Thiru Chinnam services as expected of him on a daily basis during all pooja kaalams. “His role is to play the Thiru Chinnam during the daily poojas but he has often been noticed taking care of VIP darshan. I also found him to be donning the Sripatham role at the expense of performing the Thiru Chinnam. I have directed him to stop the Sripatham service and have asked him to create a record of the vahanas and number each of them within a certain deadline”, she said.

"For long, the staffers at the temple have taken their jobs for granted and felt that it was time for those failing in their duties to be brought to task. We are also getting ready suspension orders for Kumar’s brother Kapali who carries out the security duty and Sivarajan, the night security at the temple. Their role is to be at the temple entrance as security. Instead, they are seen doing other random staff which is not within their purview”, Kavenitha told this writer on how she is keen to bring in transparency at the temple on all fronts.

For long, the EOs at the Kapaleeswarar temple had gone slow on the internal issues. In the past, there had not been a single suspension of a staffer. Kavenitha is clearly taking a tough stance and bringing the wrongdoers to book. 

She also said that she has asked for a couple of EOs for this temple so she can focus on replying to RTIs and also legal issues relating to the temple.

It is a welcome development and inspiring to see a JC take a tough stance with her staffers. Recently, she has hired a few staffers who she assigned for the long and tedious ongoing Vastram auction to give them a feel on what temple work entails.

Kavenitha said that she is monitoring her staff closely and those failing in their duties will be taken to task. It is a great blessing to be posted at the Kapaleeswarar temple and every staff member has to realise his / her responsibility and carry out their duties diligently, she said.