Kozhikode, October 11, 2013: Representatives of the Madathilkunnu Maha Vishnu Kshetra Paripalana (temple protection) committee will hold talks with Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday regarding the issue of the removal of the idol of Lord Vishnu that was installed at Moozhikkal.

Revenue officials, on Tuesday, removed the idol from a plot of land owned by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), resulting in violent protests at Moozhikkal and the adjoining areas from Malaparamba to Karanthur on the National Highway 212 (Wayanad Road). The removal was on the basis of a report the Revenue Divisional Officer submitted to the District Collector citing that it was illegal to install an idol on government land.

Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; the temple committee; and a section of the local people had also observed a dawn-to-dusk hartal at Chelavoor, Moozhikkal, and Vellimadukunnu in protest against the action of the district administration. A posse of police personnel has also been deployed in the area.

The local people had installed the idol of Lord Vishnu, recovered from the Moozhikkal river, on the KWA land on August 29. Subsequently, devotees from the Madathilkunnu Vishnu temple thronged the spot, claiming that the KWA land belonged to the temple.

However, the KWA filed a complaint at Chevayur police station stating that some people had encroached upon the government land.

Source: The Hindu, October 11, 2013