Chennai: After the unfortunate incident in a temple in Chamarajanagar in Karnataka where 10 devotees died and over a 100 were hospitalised after eating prasadam, the Senior Citizens Group of Besant Nagar and Mylapore proposes to launch an educational campaign targetting temples and their devotees about the need for hygiene and quality checks in temples across Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to DC, V. Chandrasekhar, president of Senior Citizens Group Of Besantnagar and Mylapore (SCGOBNM) said that people tend to ignore violations as the prasadam is from God.
“There is no quality control. Anything ranging from allergies to contamination can occur,” he said.
Further, temple prasadam consists of two kinds- some cooked in the temple and some people donate. “Although the intention may be good, the quality may not be. Sometimes, even the water used isn't hygienic,” he said
The abhishekam, according to Chandrashekar is very unhygienic as the milk or water used will be unclean by the time it is served to the devotees. "Because of lack of quality checks, what happened in Chamarajanagar could happen here too, he said.
Requesting temple management to cooperate, the Senior Citizens Group Of Besantnagar and Mylapore (SCGOBNM) aims to launch an educational campaign with the help of doctors who will discuss the issues. Volunteers who attend the campaign will only have to convince their temples to follow these rules.
