A PIL seeking permission to allow vehicular movement in all the four car streets around the famous Sri Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram to facilitate pick up and drop of pilgrims, has been filed before the Madras High Court.
In her petition, a pilgrim from Cuddalore, A Geetha, submitted that though the court's earlier order did not totally prohibit movement of the vehicles in the streets, the authorities had barricaded them by "misinterpreting" the order.
Alleging that police were harassing pilgrims under the pretext of security, the PIL said the visitors to the temple had to walk a long distance due to prohibition of entry of vehicles.
Also, the choultries, inns and even temple-owned cottages, pilgrim houses, which charged nominal rates, remained vacant as they were out of bound for vehicles while hotels in other areas were charging exorbitantly, Geetha claimed.
She requested that at least autorickshaws be allowed to provide pick up and drop services.
Besides, about 3,000 residents in the car streets had to suffer hardship in view of the total prohibition of vehicle movement.
The petitioner claimed a pilgrim died of heart attack as the ambulance could not reach the spot on time due to restrictions on vehicular movement in the car streets.
