The 41-day Mandalapuja festival at Sabarimala that came to a close on December 27 was more or less a season of avoidable controversies. But for the row triggered by the report of the Food Safety Department (FSD) on the quality of Aravana payasom and huge stocks of jaggery, the just-concluded Mandalam pilgrim season was, by and large, a well-managed one.
The holy hillock witnessed a heavy flow of pilgrims right from the beginning of the festival. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) registered a record revenue of Rs.142 crore, despite the short supply of Aravana in the last lap of the pilgrim season. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation also posted a record collection of Rs.5.19 crore through its Pampa-Nilackal service.
Clean-upSabarimala Sannidhanam, Pampa, and the trekking path wore a clean look with the workers of the Sabarimala Sanitation Society carrying out their duty with dedication.
The FSD had fired the first salvo at the temple authority by rejecting jaggery worth Rs.2.5 crore stocked at the Devaswom godown at Pampa before the beginning of the pilgrim season.
The FSD officials told the Chief Minister that they had taken such a step after a physical verification of the commodity and not on the basis of any laboratory test.
The TDB-FSD faceoff entered an ugly phase with the latter denying quality clearance for two lorry-loads of dry grapes and candies brought for the preparation of Aravana and Appam. The Aravana production was stopped for six days due to non-availability of the ingredients. This, coupled with the FSD direction that the moisture content in Aravana should not exceed 10 per cent, worsened the situation leading to short supply of Aravana and its regulated sales in the last lap of the Mandalam season.
However, a report from the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, came as a morale-booster for the temple authority. It said, “Aravana is not a product like cereals and pulses and it is a water activity-controlled processed food with high level of brix. Hence Aravana will have moisture content of more than 10 per cent and the presence of sugar and controlled water activity help in the longer storage of the product (three months).”
Row over toiletsThe alleged meddling and manipulation of facts by the contractors of the toilet complexes at Pampa to get the auction amount reduced had caused inconvenience to the pilgrims.
Some toilet blocks at Pampa and Neelimala remained closed on the very first day of the pilgrim season.
There were allegations that certain contractors were creating unnecessary problems by closing down the toilets for one or two days in a move to claim reduction in their auction money, ultimately leaving the pilgrims at the receiving end.
