Tiruvannamalai: Over 300 people of the Dalit community entered the 200-year-old temple in the Tiruvannamalai district here. They were denied entry into a temple for several decades.
However, there’s heavy police deployment outside the temple to avert any untoward incident, as the situation is tense because of fierce opposition by 12 dominant groups in the village.
Around 500 Scheduled Caste families live in the Thenmudiyanur village, and the community was denied entry to the 200-year-old temple for over 80 years.
The dominant communities were reluctant, saying the communities agreed to pray at different temples decades ago, and no change in that so-called tradition is required now.
The District Collector and the Superintendent of Police led a series of peace committee meetings to persuade the dominant communities to allow temple entry for SCs.
