Shortage Of 'prasadam' At Sabarimala

With the Sabarimala temple opening for the festival season Saturday, devotees faced shortage of 'prasadam', forcing the authorities to restrict its supply.Speaking to reporters, Sunday, C.K.Guptan, president of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), which manages the affairs of the temple said that they have taken over the production of the prasadam following the failure of the contractor to meet the demand.

'The daily production of prasadam is around 1.25 lakh cans and due to shortage of cans we have been forced to restrict the supply and henceforth a devotee will get only a maximum of five cans,' said Guptan. Each can of prasadam costs Rs.50 and the decision of the TDB to take over the production and supply is to prevent black marketing of the prasadam. 'On the first day itself following short supply of prasadam, devotees had to wait for more than five hours in the queue to get the prasadam,' a journalist, who was at the temple premises told IANS.

To meet the excessive rush in the first few days, the authorities stock around a million cans of prasadam, but this time it was not done, temple insiders said. 'There is a serious shortage of cans and if necessary we will airlift these containers from Taiwan,' said Guptan. The festival season of the Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa goes on till the third week of January.

Last season an estimated three million devotees visited the temple with collections of over Rs.10 million.