SABARIMALA: The Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangham (ABASS) began round-the-clock free food distribution here on Saturday with the Tiruchirappalli unit taking up the task of preparation and serving food to pilgrims. The 200-member volunteer team headed by ABASS vice-president and Tiruchirappalli unit secretary M Sreedhar, who has been associated with free food service here for the past one decade, reached the sannidhanam to undertake the task.
Sreedhar said three truckloads of food items, including vegetables, were brought to Pampa and transported in tractors to the sannidhanam for the purpose. The food material weighing 30 tonnes, collected from the devotees of Tiruchirapalli and nearby areas, will be used for the purpose during the remaining peak days of Mandala pooja season till December 26, Sreedhar said.
The unit has also been serving free food to pilgrims in Tiruchi town during the two-month long pilgrimage season from November 16, he said.The Tiruchi unit has also been sending volunteers, numbering 300, for cleaning operation under the Sabarimala Sanitation Society at Sannidhanam, Pampa and Erumeli for the past one decade, he said.
The ABASS will begin free food distribution at its important centres like Erumeli, Kottayam and Pandalam during the peak days of the Mandalam and Makaravilakku seasons, a sangham source said.
The ABASS state units in Karnataka - which have already sent adequate quantities of rice and pulses to the sannidhanam - Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh, have already begun preparations for extending free distribution at the important centres in the state, the source said.
‘Jaggery stock adequate to meet production capacity’
Sabarimala: The buffer stock of jaggery is adequate to meet the production capacity of 2 lakh containers a day and match the average demand of pilgrims during the coming days. With a stock of 5 lakh kg in devaswom godowns here and average need of 50,000 kg of jaggery a day, the production capacity of the plant could be maintained to achieve the demand-supply ratio, Sabarimala devaswom executive officer V N Chandrasekharan said. Though the average transportation of jaggery stands in the range of 30,000 to 35,000 kg a day, the devaswom godowns could meet the shortfall.