SHRAVANABELAGOLA: Food was served to more than three lakh people during the three-day 81st Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in this famed Jain pilgrim centre.
Shravanabelagola Digambara Jain Mutt provided the food to visitors, volunteers and VIPs. As many as 72 varieties of dishes, including ten different types of sweets were prepared for both lunch and dinner.
The food was served in 15 counters. Jowar roti, brinjal curry and ragi mudde (ragi ball) and avarekalu saru were served on all the three days of the Sammelana. Sweets including Mysore pak, badam puri, carrot and pumpkin halwa, coconut holige, badusha, kesari bath, jalebi and kheer were served. Poori sagu, rice, sambhar, shavige vegetable rice, vangibath, curd rice, idli, vada, uppitu, avalakki bath and over 50 varieties of curries, prepared using different vegetables and cereals were served.
Interestingly, cooks prepared different jalebis for diabetics. One thousand workers, including 600 assistants and volunteers, were pressed in to service.
Food Committee convener Jitendra Kumar said no single item was repeated in all the three days. “The visitors had sufficient food on all the three days,” he stated. He refused to disclose the amount spent on food. He added that the mutt did its job in the interest of the Kannada. “We have to treated the visitors as relatives and the mutt is in the frontline to serve the people and never calculates the cost while chalking out the programmes for the welfare of the people,” Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Swami, the mutt’s head, told Express.