Private temples are being promoted over Sabarimala, says TDB

Sabarimala temple custodian the Travancore Devasom Board TDB on Thursday expressed concern over the way the ongoing Sabarimala issue has been handled which it sees as a concerted attempt to promote private temples over the Lord Ayyappa shrineThere is a concerted attempt to promote new generation of private temples and thats why there has been a call now given asking devotees not to give offerings at the Sabarimala temple and other temples owned by the TDB said TDB president A PadmakumarThere is some game plan to finish Sabarimala as there are around 13000 Hindus who are employees and pensioners of the TDB and there are 1248 temples of the TDBThose who are against us think that they can finish us off by asking pilgrims not to contribute but this is not going to happen added PadmakumarThe TDB is already feeling the heat as there has been a drop of Rs 25 crore in offerings collected during the 11day period starting November 16 when it opened for the present two month long festival season as compared to the last seasonThere was a call given by a section of the top BJP leaders who have asked devotees and pilgrims not to give any offerings to the temples of the TDBPadmakumar who is also a former CPIM legislator told the media here that things have started becoming clear at the way the protests at the temple were going onThe stakeholders of the Sabarimala temple consist of the TDB which looks after the daytoday management while the Kantararu family looks after the tantric duties and the Pandalam royal family takes care of the jewellery of the templeThe Kerala Police has extended the prohibitory orders at the temple town till Friday midnightProtests by Hindu groups began in the temple town on September 28 when the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter the temple that hitherto banned girls and women aged 1050The apex court on November 13 refused to stay the September verdict three days before the temple opened this seasonThe Left Democratic Front government led by the CPIM has been trying to implement the apex courts verdict even as the Congress the Bharatiya Janata Party and several Hindu groups have been up in arms against itHitherto during the festival season on an average around one lakh pilgrims would arrive daily but since November 16 this has fallen dramatically This is the first time in many years that such a thing has happenedAccording to the official TDB figures in the first 11 days there has been a total collection of Rs 1623 crore compared to the same time period in 2017 when it was Rs 4170 croreThe drop includes Rs 11 crore in the sales of ravana made from jaggery Rs 685 crore in offerings and Rs 245 crore in sales of appom a variety of cakeHowever state BJP president PSreedharan Pillai told the media on Thursday that its the Pinarayi Vijayan government which is out to destroy the Sabarimala templeFrom December 5 to 10 we are going to organise a statewide protest against the way the Left government here has handled the temple issue with absolute callousness said PillaiCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever