MADURAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA, October 5, 2017 (by Chennabasaveshwar, Oneindia):Under Swachhta Hi Seva (cleanliness is service) program, the Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai has been ranked the cleanest iconic place in the country. The historic place has topped the Taj Mahal, Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the Golden Temple, Tirupathi temple and Sri Vaishno Devi temple to grab the top slot. Madurai district collector K Veera Raghava Rao and corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar will collect the award at a function being organized by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation in New Delhi on Monday. The function will be held to mark Gandhi Jayanthi and the culmination of the Swachhta Hi Seva.
The Times of India reports that about 60 employees work to keep the temple clean and moreover, about 300 volunteers join in during monthly cleanliness drives. Industrial houses such as TVS and Thiagarajar Mills too participated with their staff for the cleanliness drives. Meenakshi Temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of Parvati, and her consort, Sundareswar, a form of Shiva. The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the 2,500-year-old city of Madurai.