TN CM launches free laddu prasadam at Madurai Meenakshi temple

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday launched the free laddu prasadam distribution scheme at the Madurai Meenakshi temple.

The Chief Minister inaugurated the scheme through video conference from the Secretariat here, under which devotees visiting the ancient temple will be provided laddu prasadam through the day and all round the year, an official release said.

The new scheme apparently was structured following the practice at the Tirupati Sri Venkateshwara hill shrine.

The initiative to provide laddus at the Madurai temple has been in the pipeline for quite some time and from today devotees, after darshan, are provided laddus.

According to the Meenakshi temple, approximately 20,000 devotees visit the shrine everyday and machinery has been procured to produce about 2,000 laddus in an hour.

Senior government officials participated in the launch event at both the Secretariat and Madurai.

Palaniswami also inaugurated a commercial complex at the Ratnagiri Sri Balamurugan temple in Vellore District, a dormitory for devotees at the Alangudi Abathsahayeswara Swamy temple (Tiruvarur), a marriage hall in the premises of Surathamman Temple at Peerkankaranai, near Tambaram in Kancheepuram district.

All the new buildings were built at a total cost of about Rs 2.06 crore, the government said.

The Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple at Madurai is one of the famous places of Hindu worship in Tamil Nadu. Also, this temple is an important spiritual destination in the Madurai-Rameswaram temple circuit.