Chennai, Apr 6 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister P.K. Sekar Babu on Thursday said that the department was unaware of the Theertahvari festival held at Moovarasampet in Chennai during which five youths drowned to death.

Responding to a calling attention motion in the state Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Babu said that the trustees of the Dharmalingeswar temple have been organising the Theerthvari festival for the past four years without informing the HR&CE department about it.

He said in future, the temple trustees must inform the government if they are organising temple fests, so that precautionary measures could be taken.

The minister said that the tank in which the youths drowned belonged to the local panchayath and was renovated recently at a cost of Rs 50.5 lakh spent by the Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Industries, T.M. Anbarasan.

Babu told the assembly that Chief Minister immediately called him and sought an explanantion but he told him that the tank was renovated by Anbarasan.

He said that the temple was managed by the Sarva Mangala Seva Trust and they decided to conduct a kumabishekam on September 8, 2022. P.K. Sekar Babu said that when the HR& CE department came to know of this, it immediately appointed the Executive officer of Nanganallur Anjaneya Swami temple as trustee of the temple managed by Sarva Mangala Seva trust. He said that the trust has now filed an appeal which would be heard on April 12.