Dalits conduct puja in Sigaranahalli temple

Hassan: A day after the district administration opened the doors of the Sri Basaveshwara Temple in Sigaranahalli, Holenarasipura taluk to all people, dalits conducted a puja there on Sunday morning.
Dalits who came to the temple in large numbers in the morning, entered the sanctum sanctorum and conducted a puja. As the district administration is yet to appoint a priest for the temple, dalits Thayamma, Vijayakumar, Govindaraju and others performed the puja.No member from the upper caste participated in it.
Superintendent of police Rahul Kumar Shahapurwad on Saturday opened the doors of the temple for all people. He had given the responsibility of holding the daily puja to village accountant Shivakumar.
The temple doors had been closed on September 2015 after a dalit woman, Thayamma, along with other dalit women had entered the temple on August 31 to perform a special puja. The majority Vokkaliga community opposed dalits from entering the temple and this led to violence.
Recently, there was a clash between dalits and the Vokkaliga community in Sigaranahalli when upper caste people stopped dalits from celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti in the community hall. Upper caste people named the hall 'Vokkaliga Samudaya Bhavan' and dalits protested against it. On Tuesday, in the presence of senior police offices, the name board was painted and after locking the hall, the keys were handed over to the gram panchayat.
Both incidents led to tension in the village and police deployed a large contingent to prevent any untoward incident or clash between communities.
Hassan SP Rahul Kumar Shahapurwad told TOI that the temple is open to everyone and the village is peaceful. Police personnel have been deployed. "I'm visiting the village regularly and speaking to villagers to emsure it's peaceful," he said.