Mangaluru (PTI) A temple in coastal Karnataka has barred vendors from setting up shops in the shrine area during the ongoing annual temple fair that got underway on April 5.

The decision comes a year after a controversy had broken out when a banner was displayed outside Bappanadu Sri Durgaparameshwari Temple at Mulki in Mangaluru taluk asking the temple authorities not to allow Muslim vendors to set up stalls for the temple fair.

Speaking about the management committee’s decision to prohibit the stalls from being put up for this year’s festivities, temple hereditary trustee N S Manohar Shetty on Sunday said the temple stands as a symbol of communal harmony and thousands of people from different faiths, including Muslims, revere the deity.

“We were pained by last year’s development. The committee decided not to have any stalls in the temple area for the ongoing temple fair. We want the fair to go in a harmonious manner and did not want any controversy,” he said.

Shetty said vendors are free to erect stalls in the private property adjacent to the temple land if the owner agrees. A committee of volunteers is looking after the shops on the private land and a part of the money collected by the committee for allotment of shops is given to the temple, Shetty further said.

He denied the charge made by some Muslim vendors that they were not allowed to erect stalls for the fair, while adding that the management committee members have made it clear that no vendor belonging to any faith will be permitted to open shops on the temple land.