By IANS
Sabarimala (Kerala) : Angry devotees at the famed Sabarimala temple here have demanded the resignation of Devasom Minister G. Sudhakaran and two members of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) after many of them did not get the temple ‘prasadam’.
The annual temple festivities, that began Nov 17, have been plagued by several problems and witnessed angry exchanges between the three officials.
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.
Following shortage of prasadam cans, the temple management had to restrict the distribution of prasadam.
Angry devotees Friday night resorted to slogan shouting demanding the resignation of the minister and the board members. The TDB consists of three members – president C.K. Guptan, P. Narayanan and S. Amma.
Guptan, son-in-law of legendary E.M.S. Nampoothiripad, has been nominated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), while Narayanan is a former Communist Party of India legislator. S. Amma was nominated by the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Devasom Minister Sudhakaran told IANS that the resignation of the two board members was the only way to end the impasse.
“The TDB president is helpless because the two other 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, nearly 100,000 devotees visited the temple. The crowd got very agitated after they were not given 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 during the festival time between November and January. In the last season, an estimated three million devotees visited the temple.