Members of the Arunthathiyar community conducted a ground-breaking ceremony on Sunday for constructing a temple for late DMK president and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at Rasipuram in Namakkal.

In recognition of the contributions made by the late DMK leader towards uplifting the Arunthathiyar community, its members plan to construct the Kalaignar Pakuthuarivalayam (Karunanidhi Temple of Rationalism). They said the Pakutharivalayam would be built on an area of 10,000 sq.ft at a cost of ₹30 lakh.

A community member said, “It was Kalaignar who gave us 3% reservation in jobs and education. It has helped improve the socio-economic status of the community members in a big way. He even took steps to abolish manual scavenging. We have always wondered how to express our gratitude to him and have been planning to build a temple for him for a long time. There are no political motives behind this and the temple would be managed by a Trust.”