A section of residents of Jambai sought the district administration’s help to offer worship at their village temple complaining of ‘social ostracisation’ within their Nadar community.
They said in the petition that the managing committee members of the Aathora Mariamman Temple were humiliating people who they dislike by refusing to accept the annual tax and subsequently putting up flex boards listing the defaulters’ names.
At a recent temple function, the names of 15 family heads were mentioned in the flex boards put up at two places in the village.
The temple management committee said Jegadeesh Kumar, one of the affected persons, used to issue diktat to the villagers to ‘excommunicate’ the families that did not pay the annual tax.
According to the petitioners, there were 200 such families that were shunned by the rest of the residents in the village on the instructions of the temple committee.
District Collector S. Prabakar instructed the Police to take necessary action.