Thiruvananthapuram: The Travancore Devaswom Board has stopped the practice of facilitating ‘special darshan’ at the Ayyappa temple to ensure ‘equal opportunities’ for all devotees.
“We’ve done away with the system put in place by the previous board administration to those who offer donations. However, those who already got donation receipts will be allowed to have special darshan. Since the state government, TDB and the police are against the VIP culture, the ‘darshan for money’ practice will be stopped,” newly- appointed president A. Padmakumar said.
“Those paying Rs 1000 and above for ‘annadanam’ were provided with easy ‘darshan.’ This has led to a situation where devotees are more interested in ‘annadanam’ package than donations,” he said.
The revenue from the practice has shot up from Rs 5 lakh last year to Rs 30 lakh this year. However, the board is under no financial stress and the campaign by a section against offering money at Sabarimala had no impact, he added.
He urged the government to conduct a joint survey with the forest department at Sabarimala. “The board had 63 acres of land there, but it has only 55 acres now,” he charged.
“The board had 63 acres of land there, but it has only 55 acres now,” he charged. The first meeting convened by the newly- constituted board examined the charges against former devaswom secretary V.S. Jayakumar. The charge was that Mr Jayakumar, during his tenure as Sabarimala executive officer, had purchased vessels worth Rs 1.57 crore when there was no evident need for them. The board has now asked the new secretary to prepare a detailed note on the charges. Board member K. Raghavan, during the tenure of the former board, had wanted the board to remove Mr Jayakumar as secretary for a fair probe. Though he was not suspended, Mr Jayakumar was asked to go on leave by the board led by Mr Prayar Gopalakrishnan. Mr Jayakuamar is the brother of former minister and Cngress leader V.S. Sivakumar.
