Devotees of the Sri Muthukumaraswamy Temple, popularly known as Kandhakottam in Rattan Bazaar, Park Town, are worried about how the Kandasashti festival will be conducted this year. The archanai is slated to start on November 10, and the administration has yet to open ticket sales or call tenders for the arrangements that usually come with it.

Ticket sales are the first warning sign for many. A. B. Srinivasan, a 65-year-old devotee, said tickets for the Laksharcharnai during the annual festival are usually sold just after Vijayadasami. “There is no sign of the conduct of the festival so far,” he said.

Every year, around 35,000 tickets priced at ₹300 each are sold to devotees who want to take part in the archanai. At that volume, the ticket sales alone would bring in ₹1.05 crore. This year, the counters remain closed.

Tenders and missing preparations

Another devotee, Saravanan, said this year would be the 99th consecutive year of the Kandasashti festival, during which grand concerts are held. Participants in the archanai are usually given prasadam, including a bucket.

Yet tenders for procuring pandals, coconuts, bags and flowers are yet to be called, he said. Devotees who have followed the festival closely see those gaps as the clearest sign that something is wrong.

Saravanan also pointed to a change at the top of the administration. “We hear that the executive officer has gone on leave and another person has taken charge,” he said.

A 500-year-old shrine under community trusteeship

The over 500-year-old shrine is a scheme temple, which means it belongs to a particular community. In this case, that community is the Berri Chettis. A five-member team from the community was chosen as trustees last year, and they have been in charge of the temple’s daily administration.

That arrangement now sits at the centre of the dispute. Trustee Sendilvellan said the executive officer has taken away cheque signatory powers from the trustees, leaving them unable to pay even salaries.

“He has gone to the bank and taken signatory powers without informing us. We seem to have absolutely no powers in the day-to-day running of the temple.”

Sendilvellan also said the court had directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to interfere only if there was a problem relating to the conduct of the temple. “From last year, we have been managing the temple without any problems,” he said.

Days before the festival, a standoff

Another trustee said that with just a few days left, the trustees have been running from pillar to post trying to get their powers back and conduct the festival. For devotees, the fear is simple: a festival with nearly a century of consecutive celebrations could be disrupted by a fight over who controls the bank account.

The trustees’ account paints the executive officer as someone who has moved in on their authority. The board’s version, as relayed by department sources, points in the other direction entirely.

The department’s version

Sources in the HR&CE Department said they would look into the matter. Their account differs sharply from the trustees’. According to those sources, there was a delay in calling for tenders because the board of trustees refused to pass a resolution to that effect.

The executive officer, they said, is unable to operate the main bank account because the chairman of the board has refused to sign the cheques for it. The sources also alleged that the trustees seemed to have ganged up against HR&CE staff, refused to cooperate with officers in any manner, and wanted to be independent of any authority in running the temple.

Who pays the price if this drags on

Put the two accounts side by side and the picture is a stalemate. Trustees say they are being sidelined from daily management. The department says the board is blocking the very steps needed to organise the festival. Each side places the blame on the other while the calendar moves toward November 10.

For the devotees who buy tickets, take part in the archanai and expect prasadam, the uncertainty is immediate. Tickets have not been sold. Tenders have not been called. Those gaps are what have people worried.

The case also raises a question with weight beyond one temple. When a shrine is run by a community-appointed board, where does the state’s oversight begin and end? The court direction, as the trustees described it, limits the department’s role to problems with the conduct of the temple. The department’s sources, by contrast, describe a board that will not pass the resolutions needed to move forward.

Which reading holds will likely decide whether the festival goes ahead on schedule. With the archanai just over a week away, the devotees who have waited every year for the tickets to go on sale are still waiting.