MADURAI, INDIA, October 3, 2017 (The Hindu): Twelve years ago, 12 workers and two supervisors in charge of the upkeep of the world-famous Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai came together with the aim of figuring out ways to ensure that the sprawling premises is kept spick and span at all times. It could well be said that their efforts have paid off, with the temple winning the Swachh Iconic Place award. The temple has a footfall of about 40,000 a day. On festive days, the number doubles, and sometimes even crosses the 100,000 mark.
Initially, there was a proposal to install dustbins at select locations around the temple for devotees to discard items like plastic bags and other containers in which they bring flowers, camphor, oil, coconut and the like for the purposes of abhishekam and archana. The maintenance staff of the temple were sent to the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to study the procedure used for the collection and disposal of waste there, Thakkar Karumuttu T. Kannan recalled. Detailing the initiatives taken to promote cleanliness in the temple, he said that devotees were given counseling and flower vendors inside the temple premises educated by the staff to use dustbins. Some well-wishers of the temple provided able support by assisting with the herculean task of clearing garbage, he said.