Counting of monetary offerings at Sabarimala temporarily stopped; employees tired due to continuous work and illness

SABARIMALA: The Devaswom Board will temporarily stop the counting of monetary offerings at Sabarimala from today. Apart from the fatigue and mental stress of the employees due to continuous work, the decision was taken in consideration of the spread of chicken pox and viral fever among them.

Even though more than 700 employees worked for the last few days, they could not count even half of the coins collected in the huge copper vessel. The bhandaram chief officer Unnikrishnan, Devaswom Board President, Devaswom Commissioner and Devaswom Vigilance Officer were asked to grant leave to the employees. Then the Devaswom Secretary wrote to the Devaswom Commissioner asking for leave from today evening. It has been informed that measures should be taken to resume counting of coins from February 5 using those who have not yet done bhadaram duty, those who are currently on duty and Kalapeedam students. The board has decided to write to the heads of the concerned departments to provide police and medical assistance and also to appoint a Deputy Devaswom Commissioner in addition to the Chief Bhandaram officer. The Devaswom Commissioner was assigned to report the matter to the High Court.

On the 17th, Kerala Kaumudi brought out the information that the money in the bhandaram was getting damaged as they are not properly counted. Due to this, the Devaswom Board intensified its efforts to count the monetary offerings.

The High Court had sought a report from the Sabarimala Special Commissioner and the Devaswom Vigilance department regarding the counting. The explanation given by the Board in the High Court was that the coins would be counted before the 25th.