SABARIMALA: Hurting the sentiments of hundreds of pilgrims, the preparations for ‘irumudi kettu,’ a prerequisite for the pilgrims for climbing the Holy Steps of Lord Ayyappa temple, came to halt for about 10 hours at Pampa Lord Ganapathy temple from 5 am on Wednesday. Engaging a contractor, Jamal , by the previous Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), for the supply of items in ‘irimudikettu,’ caused the mayhem.
Contract for the supply of items, including ghee, coconuts, rice for the cotton cloth and cotton bag, was introduced by the TDB for the first time in the history of the temple. Hundreds of pilgrims, who failed to get ‘irumudikettu’ for the pilgrimage, were forced to go the western gate of the temple for darsan of Lord Ayyappa.
“I am deeply hurt in not climbing the Holy Steps of the Lord Ayyappa temple, before the darsan of the Lord, for the first time, during my 15 years of Sabarimala pilgrimage,” Renga Reddy of Nelloor in Andhra said.
Heading a pilgrim group of 18, Renga Reddy said the team members were hurt as they were observing pilgrimage rites for the last 50 days. The TDB should not have commercialised at least the ‘irumudikettu’ preparations, taking into consideration the religious sentiments of the pilgrims, he said.