Sabarimala prasadam issue to be resolved soon: Achuthanandan

Dec 17, 2007, 12:17 GMT

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Monday promised to resolve within a week the issue of shortage of 'prasadam' or holy offering at the famed Sabarimala temple that has caused unhappiness among devotees.

Achuthanandan, who held an emergency meeting of state bureaucrats Monday to end the row over supply of prasadam, said: 'The daily requirement of prasadam is 150,000 cans but only 125,000 cans are being supplied. This will be sorted out in a week's time and we have started taking steps to increase production.'

Prasadam has been in short supply even a month after the temple opened for its nearly two-month-long annual festival. The temple authorities are still groping in the dark about how to sort the matter.

The annual festivities, which began Nov 17, have been plagued by a tiff between the three officials of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) - president C.K. Guptan, and members P. Narayanan and P.K. Sumathykutty Amma. The trouble started when the TDB, which runs the affairs of the temple, took over the prasadam production after a contractor failed to supply the required number of cans.

Devasom Minister G. Sudhakaran and the TDB members were not present at Monday's meeting, leading to speculation that all is not well between Achuthanandan and Sudhakaran, a close aide of state Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Sudhakaran, who was in Alappuzha attending a meeting, reacted by saying that it is the media that was having doubts. 'I have a meeting here which was fixed earlier and I have informed the chief minister about all the issues that have to be discussed,' Sudhakaran told reporters at Alappuzha.

Asked about the absence of Sudhakaran, the chief ministers said since the meeting was fixed at short notice this has happened.

'We are discussing if there is need to appoint a senior bureaucrat to look into the day-to-day affairs of Sabarimala. A decision would be taken soon,' said Achuthanandan.

Meanwhile, Kerala High Court appointed TDB Ombudsman, Justice R. Bhaskaran, Monday submitted a report to the court that serious lapses had occurred in the awarding of the contract to state-owned SIDCO for supply of prasadam cans.

TDB had given Rs.17.5 million as advance to SIDCO for supply of prasadam cans but it was later found that they had supplied inferior quality cans, which in turn led to erratic supply of prasadam.

Last week, pilgrims were surprised when TDB officials at the temple began distributing the prasadam in buckets and other vessels.

The Sabarimala temple is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. Devotees from across the country visit the temple during the festival time between November and January. In the last season, an estimated three million devotees came. This year, TDB is expecting a 30 percent increase in pilgrims.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service