A view of the Vadapalani Andavar Temple in Chennai. There are two types of tickets in the temple, one for special Darshan and the other for Archana. photo credit: file
Two office assistant-level employees of the Vadapalani Andavar temple in Vadapalani have been suspended. complaint filed by a judge of the Madras High Court.
Justice SM Subramaniam, who along with his family members visited the temple on Saturday evening but chose not to reveal his identity, complained that he had paid Rs 150 for three special darshan tickets, but He was provided with only two special darshan tickets and one. ₹5 archana ticket by staff.
Subsequently, senior officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department conducted an inquiry into the incident and suspended both the persons. One was the lady who issued the tickets and the other was the man who took the tickets and let the special ticket holders inside.
The lady at the counter was only there for three days as the regular person was on leave. Both the archana and the special ticket were of the same colour. The authorities have now directed that a separate dedicated ticket counter be set up to avoid such confusion in future. Special ticket counters have been set up separately in other temples including Sri Parthasarathy Perumal Temple and Kapaleeshwarar Temple.