Kuruba community seer alleges temple was cleaned after his visit
Chitradurga: Ishwarananda Puri Swamiji, the pontiff of Kanaka Guru Peetha of shepherd Kuruba community has alleged that the authorities cleaned the state-controlled Vishnu temple after he visited it during 'Vaikuntha Ekadashi' in December 2023.
Speaking at a Kannada Literary Conference at Sanehalli Math in Hosadurga on Friday night, the pontiff alleged that there was caste-based discrimination against him at the Channakeshava temple at Bagur in Chitradurga district.
Kurubas are from the shepherd community, which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also belongs to.
''There's a Channakeshava temple at Bagur near here (Hosadurga). I came to know that they (temple authorities) cleaned the entire temple after I left it,'' the pontiff said during a conference of his community.
According to Swamiji, he went with Shantaveera Swamiji of Kunchitiga Math in Hosadurga.
Ishwarananda Puri further said he would have protested like 16th century AD saint-poet Kanakadasa, who too was prevented from entering Udupi Math.
''I would have protested had if I knew the temple came under the state Hindu religious endowment department,'' the pontiff said.
According to him, women from the priest's family were allowed inside the temple, while he was kept waiting outside despite the fact that he too was a pontiff of a Hindu monastery.
The Swami quipped that he has decided to go to all the temples as it helps cleaning all the shrines.
However, he told the gathering that henceforth he would not visit Channakeshava temple at Bagur in future.
Meanwhile, the priest of Channakeshava temple Srinivas told reporters in Bagur that no such incident took place as the pontiff has been visiting it every year.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two more infants die, toll in Jhansi medical college fire rises to 17
Jhansi (UP) (PTI): Two more infants rescued from a fire that ripped through the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College here have died, taking the total toll in the blaze to 17, a senior official said on Sunday.
Thirty-nine newborns were rescued from a devastating fire in the medical college hospital's neonatal intensive care unit on the night of November 15.
Dr Narendra Singh Sengar, the medical college's principal, told PTI that of the 39 infants rescued, two more died on Saturday.
While 10 babies died on the night of the fire, the remainder succumbed to their "illnesses", he said.
A post-mortem of the two bodies was done on Saturday and the cause of death was confirmed as "illness" in both cases. The bodies have been handed over to the family members, Sengar said.
The birth weight of both infants was 800 grams and one of them also had a hole in the heart, he added.
Meanwhile, Congress sources said on Sunday that the party's state chief Ajay Rai and Barabanki MP Tanuj Punia would travel to Jhansi and visit the medical college. They will also meet the families whose babies died in the fire.
