Lakhs of devotees visited Siddaganga Mutt on Thursday, a day after Shivakumara Swami was laid to rest. With the sheer volume of visitors over the last three days — more than 15 lakh people attended the funeral — civic officials and volunteers have been working overtime to keep the premises clean.
More than 800 tonnes of waste was generated on the premises, said officials and staff of Tumakuru City Corporation, who are working in shifts to clear waste, including plantain leaves, arecanut plates in which food and breakfast was served to visitors, paper cups and plastic water bottles.
Health Officer T. Nagesh Kumar said three environmental engineers, two executive engineers, 10 assistant executive engineers, 10 assistant engineers, 12 junior engineers, 11 health inspectors, 300 pourakarmikas, 100 watermen and valve men, and 25 electricians worked to keep the premises clean and provide water to devotees. On Monday, around 150 tonnes of waste, including plastic water bottles, was cleared. This increased to around 440 tonnes the next day. “On Wednesday, 250 tonnes of waste was removed from the premises of the mutt,” said officials.
Eight compactors and 78 auto tippers were roped in, while 16 water tankers were used to provide water. “We didn’t wait for garbage to pile up, but collected it, segregated it, and sent it to the solid waste management plant at Ajjagondanahalli on the outskirts of Tumakuru,” said Mr. Kumar.
With devotees still coming in, officials said work is likely to continue for the next 10 days. Staff will be deployed based on the requirement of the mutt on a day-to-day basis after that. Hundreds of volunteers too joined in the effort and served food, water, and helped clean the premises. “We didn’t call anybody but people and students voluntarily came forward to do service at the mutt,” said taluk panchayat member B.M. Kumar.
Minister, IPS officer face off
An argument broke out between Minister for Tourism S.R. Mahesh and IPS officer Divya Gopinath on Tuesday evening at the Siddaganga mutt during the final rites of the seer, who passed away on January 21.
Mr. Mahesh’s name was reportedly not in the VVIP list of people to be allowed inside the sanctum. When he expressed his desire to go in, Ms. Gopinath objected to it on the grounds that it violated security protocol.
Replying to a query on the incident on the premises of the mutt on Wednesday, Ms. Gopinath said: “I have just done my duty as per the instruction of my higher ups.” She added that owing to lack of space, only a limited number of people were being allowed inside the Gadduge where the seer’s final rites was being performed.
The Minister said he had only asked to be allowed inside and had not used abusive language.