[1]The ‘substandard’ jaggery for preparation of ‘Aravanaprasadam’ at Sabarimala remains stay put, as there is no move to destroy the material even as it is suspected to be harmful for consumption.
Some 30 tonnes of jaggery is stored at the Dewaswom Board godown in Pampa since the start of the last season, and it is now allegedly being mixed with good-quality jaggery for aravana preparation at the hill shrine.
The Dewaswom has denied the use of the jaggery. “The said lot of jaggery was not used as the samples were of poor quality. Marketfed had stored it at the godown.
They should remove it at their own expense. We’ve nothing to do with it,” Dewaswom Board president M. Rajagopalan Nair told DC.
When contacted, Marketfed chairman V. Satyaseelan rejected the charge.
He said the lot was not distributed by Marketfed to the ‘Sannidhanam’ and the federation would not remove it.
Ayyappa Seva Sangam members accused certain Dewaswom officials of being hand-in-glove with the contractor.
“As per a high court order, only consumer federations are allowed to supply raw-materials. But this rule is bypassed many a time when the consumer feds sublease the contract to individual suppliers like the one from Aluva in this case,” a members said.
“The present board is there till July 14 and they are looking into the issue. Anyway, we’ll order a probe into the whole episode,” additional chief secretary K. Jayakumar said.
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