Speaking to a gathering of more than 800 people at a town hall meeting at Jalan Scott in Brickfields here, MHS president T Ganesan stressed the need to maintain national unity and said that temple-related issues, especially those concerning land, need to be handled rationally.

“A memorandum will be submitted to the prime minister after your grievances have been heard and possible solutions have been discussed,” he told the gathering.

“Bygones should be bygones, and the recent temple controversy should serve as a lesson so that similar issues will not recur.”

It is understood that the memorandum will be submitted to a representative from the Prime Minister’s Office at 3pm.

The town hall was attended by representatives from temple committees across the country, MHS members, and members of the Hindu community.

It was called after a plan to relocate the 130-year-old Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman temple off Jalan Masjid India here, to make way for a mosque to be built by Jakel Group, was met with public backlash.

The temple committee eventually agreed to have the temple relocated 50m away to a new site measuring 4,000 sq ft – matching  the temple’s current size.

Anwar, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of Jakel Group’s Madani Mosque on March 27, said the temple’s relocation was a win-win solution thanks to compromises made by all the parties involved.

Among the other issues discussed during today’s town hall were the need for donations to be declared via e-invoices to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) for tax exemption purposes, and a proposal to limit the term of temple committee presidents to three years.