‘Halal’ marking on jaggery packs received at Sabarimala Temple as a supplier also exports to Arab nations: Devaswom Board to Kerala High Court

Kerala HC seeks report on the alleged use of spoiled Halal Certified jaggery to prepare prasadam at Sabarimala

Kerala HC seeks report on the alleged use of spoiled Halal Certified jaggery to prepare prasadam at Sabarimala
Kerala HC seeks report on the alleged use of spoiled Halal Certified jaggery to prepare prasadam at Sabarimala

Kerala HC seeks report over alleged use of Halal-certified jaggery received at Sabarimala Temple

Kerala Government’s Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala, on Thursday told the Kerala High Court that the jaggery received by it had ‘Halal‘ mentioned on the packaging as they are also exported to Arab countries by the company supplying to them. The Board told the High Court that the jaggery received from the contracting company is first tested at Pamba by the Food Safety department and after their clearance, it is stored in the godown there. The Board was responding to the petitions protesting on the ‘Halal’ mark in the jaggery supplied to temple for making Prasad known as Aravana Payasam.

From there, as per requirement, jaggery is transported to the main store at Sabarimala Temple and after preparation of ‘vazhipadu‘ (offerings), these too are tested before they are distributed or sold, the TDB told a bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and P G Ajithkumar. The Court listed the matter for further hearing on Friday by when the report of the Special Commissioner, Sabarimala, would also be on record.

The Devaswam Board’s submissions were made in response to a plea by a devotee — S J R Kumar — who has opposed procuring of halal-certified jaggery for the preparation of ‘Aravana’ — a payasam made out of jaggery and rice, and ‘appam’ — sweet rice and jaggery based fritter — which are given as prasadam to devotees at the Ayyappa temple. In the petition, filed through advocate V Sajith Kumar, the petitioner has alleged that the use of halal-certified food materials “is not a Satwik/ pure material” to be offered to Lord Ayyappa and therefore, the actions of the temple administration were “highly illegal and violative of the religious rights guaranteed under the Constitution.”

Countering the petitioner’s claims, TDB in its statement has contended that the allegations in the writ petition are “absolutely false, baseless and are made purposefully with the malicious intention to stall the sale of ‘appam’ and ‘aravana’ in Sabarimala” and to “torpedo” the pilgrimage season. The Board has claimed that stalling the sale of ‘aravana’ and ‘appam’ at Sabarimala would cause a huge financial loss to it. “There is a calculated attempt to attack the reputation of Sabarimala and to hurt the religious feelings of the pilgrims and thereby destroying the communal harmony through various posts published and circulated in the social media,” the Board further claimed and added that a complaint in this regard has been given to the Sannidhanam Police station.

The Board also said that packets of the fresh supplies of jaggery contained the label ‘Halal’ and on enquiring with the contracting company about this, they replied that they export jaggery to Arab countries and for that ‘Halal’ certification was necessary. The company said that ‘Halal’ certification was an assurance of maintaining quality standards, as per the Board’s statement. Giving details regarding the procurement of jaggery at the temple since 2019, the Board said a contract for supplying jaggery during 2019-20 was given to Vardhan Agro Processing Ltd from Maharashtra and the company had supplied 19.96 lakh kilograms of jaggery from Mandalam-Makaravilakku festival till Chithira Attavishesham during that period.

During that season 16.59 lakh kilograms of jaggery was used and since COVID-19 restrictions limited the ‘darshans’ by devotees, ‘aravana’ and ‘appam’ were also required in limited quantities, and therefore, the balance jaggery of around 3.36 lakh kilograms remained at Sannidhanam for a long period, it said.

Subsequently, a contract for supplying jaggery in 2020-21 was given to Maharashtra-based S P Sugar and Agro Pvt Ltd which started supplying it from April this year and till now has supplied 5 lakh kilograms of jaggery out of which 2.76 lakh kgs have been taken to the main store at Sabarimala and the remaining around 2.11 lakh kgs is in stock, the Board said in its statement. The ‘appam’ and ‘aravana’ are being prepared using the fresh supplies of jaggery, it added. In April this year, the older jaggery stock at Sannidhanam was tested and its quality was found to be satisfactory.

However, when it was tested again in September it was found unsuitable for human consumption and thereafter, was auctioned off to Thrissur-based Southern Agro Tech India Pvt Ltd for making cattle feed.

The issue assumes importance as the two-month-long annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala has commenced and devotees in the thousands would be arriving there during this period.

[with PTI inputs]

PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views

For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.

We are a team of focused individuals with expertise in at least one of the following fields viz. Journalism, Technology, Economics, Politics, Sports & Business. We are factual, accurate and unbiased.
Team PGurus

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here