By IANS
Sabarimala (Kerala) : The Sabarimala festivities that began Nov 17 is plagued by many problems as Devasom Minister G. Sudhakaran and two board members of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) here are in loggerheads.
The trouble started when the TDB took over the production of “prasadam”, after the contractor failed to supply the required number of prasadam cans.
Nearly 125,000 prasadam cans are required daily to distribute among the devotees. About 50,000 devotees visit the temple everyday.
The temple management had to restrict the distribution of prasadam to devotees following the shortage of cans.
Angry devotees Friday night resorted to shouting slogans demanding the resignation of both the minister and board members. The TDB consists of three members including its president C.K. Guptan and two other members P. Narayanan and S. Amma.
Guptan has been nominated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the son-in-law of legendary E.M.S. Nampoothiripad
while Narayanan is a former CPI legislator. S. Amma was nominated by the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Speaking to IANS Devasom Minister Sudhakaran said the resignation of the two board members could only end the impasse.
“TDB president is helpless because the other two members have ganged up against him. They are corrupt. Even though they say they are Leftist, they indulge in corruption. For all practical purposes they are ‘rightist’,” said Sudhakaran.
“On Friday there were nearly 100,000 devotees who visited the temple. The crowd went into frenzy after they did not receive their share of prasadam. Things went bad due to lack of proper arrangements,” said a local journalist.
The Sabarimala temple is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. Devotees from across the country visit the temple between November and January. In the last season an estimated three million devotees had visited the temple.