No jaggery; restriction on the sale of appam and aravana in Sabarimala

SABARIMALA: A restriction was imposed on the sale of appam and aravana in Sabarimala from Saturday morning as their production was stopped due to the shortage of jaggery. At present, each devotee is given only 5 bottles of aravana and 5 packets of appam. With this, prasadham counters are witnessing a huge rush. The contractors used to supply jaggery to Sabarimala from Maharashtra. Jaggery has not arrived for two weeks due to an acute shortage of sugarcane here. The contract company had demanded Rs 47 per kg of jaggery instead of the contract amount of Rs 42.90 per kg. However, the Devaswom Board did not accept this. Attempts were made to deliver jaggery through other means but without success.

As per the initial calculation of the Devaswom Board, there was enough stock of jaggery for making prasadham till Mandal Puja. However, the current crisis arose after nearly one lakh devotees visited Sabarimala daily for the past one week. Aravana supply was completely stopped at Nilakkal yesterday evening. Devaswom Board officials said that they hope to resolve the crisis within two days.