A junior electrical engineer at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple was placed under temporary suspension following a two-minute power blackout during the visit of Vice President C P Radhakrishnan here two days ago, the temple administration said.
After completing the visit, while the Vice President was addressing journalists on East Chithirai Street, the power supply was interrupted for two minutes, plunging the temple into darkness. The engineer, identified as S Janakiraman, was suspended effective October 31, the temple administration said in an official suspension order. The formal charges outline that on October 30, the Vice President, along with Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, visited the temple for darshan.
The administration’s notice cited severe carelessness during a crucial VVIP visit, adding that the official’s actions brought disrepute to both the state government and the temple’s administration.
Citing the state’s power infrastructure, the Vice President said that the Goddess was intentionally showing the country the true extent of power cuts in Tamil Nadu.
The AIADMK criticised the administration, pointing out that a similar power outage had occurred at the temple just a day earlier during the visit of former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister R Nirmal Kumar earlier clarified that the blackout was not a grid failure, but a technical glitch that happened at the local substation while preemptively shifting the temple’s power supply to a generator for the VIP visit.
