GUNTUR: An incident where the canteen management of Malleswara Swamy temple in Pedakakani had allegedly cooked non-vegetarian on the temple premises created chaos on Friday. The incident came to light when a devotee clicked the pictures of the food and posted them on social media.
According to the temple officials, recently a local hotelier, Shareef secured contract to cook prasadams and tiffins at the temple canteen for the devotees and started functioning from April 1. He also owns a catering services in the town and supplies food based on orders.
On Thursday, a few devotees observed a cart of non-vegetarian food in the temple. Reacting over the incident, the temple officials have issued show-cause notice to the contractor. Speaking to the media, endowments department deputy commissioner Eemani Chandrasekhar said the issue will be investigated thoroughly.
"It is yet to be ascertained if the non-vegetarian food was cooked at the temple canteen or was brought cooked to the temple, which is either way unacceptable. We have issued show-cause notice to the contractor and took his statement. The license has been cancelled and the canteen will be seized until the investigation is completed," the deputy commissioner clarified.
Further, Chandrasekhar said a report will be submitted to this effect to the government and further investigation will be carried out to find if such incidents happened earlier on the temple premises.
Members of Hindu Dharmik Sangh staged protests in front of temple EO’s office, alleging that the incident happened due to the negligence of the temple staff.