They claim that the park is the only source of entertainment near their neighbourhood but has remained close for many months now.

The Sri Kandasamy Murugan Temple is one of the oldest temples in the city outskirts. Many devotees from surrounding areas visit the temple every day and thousands of people from different states would also visit the temple during the festival season. Former CM J Jayalalithaa would also visit the temple frequently, according to locals.

 

Opposite to the temple, there is a public park which was the sole entertainment and a place of relaxation for the devotees who visit the temple. The locals claimed that recently the park was closed due to lack of maintenance following which the premises were now being used as a dump yard by some of the residents and devotees.

 

Karthika from the locality said, “The park is now in such a bad state that we can’t even go near it. Also, there is no other entertainment for us nearby and we are all depended only on that park. The bad smell from the park is also very nauseating and unbearable,” said Karthika, a resident of Tiruporur who used to go to the park frequently.

 

She claimed that residents had asked the temple office bearers to repair the park but there was no proper response from them.

 

When contacted, the temple officer bearer Sakthivel said that the park would be renovated soon and thrown open for the public. “We have also planned to make some big developments in infrastructure and hopefully, it will be opened very soon,” he said.