Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Lapses, indecision in ‘aravana’ distribution: report

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Official ‘lapses’ and ‘indecision’ that led to the short supply of ‘aravana prasadam’ during the last Sabarimala festival have incurred heavy loss to the Travancore Devasom Board.

According to a report submitted to the High Court by the Deputy Director of Local Fund Audit, compared to the festival season in 2006, there was a shortfall of Rs.3,28,63,600 during the first 30 days of the festival between November 13 and December 3, 2007.

The shortfall had been detected in spite of the increase in the number of pilgrims as well as a 32 per cent rise in the temple collection.

Inadequate procurement of containers and lids for supplying prasadam even on the penultimate day to the start of the season and delay in awarding the contract on flimsy grounds had led to the shortage.

Against a stock of 4,02,688 containers on the starting day in 2006, there were only 1,21,000 containers during the last festival.

Considering the inadequacies in distributing prasadam during the previous years, the board had given full administrative control to the Devaswom Commissioner, and the secretary and the finance and account officer were deployed to assist him.

But their services were not properly utilised and the board failed to detect whether its orders had been executed. Though delayed, the only positive step was the presence of the president and the board members in Sabarimala to monitor the situation, the report said.

The board gave an advance of Rs.1 crore to the executive officer without the prior consent of the High Court and it was not ratified too.

He was given the authority to utilise the service of any firm or agency and make all arrangements, including the purchase of cans, lids and other paraphernalia.

“This means that the executive officer is free to do whatever he thinks fit and expend as he desires and the board will meet the expenses. A situation may arise wherein the board may have to sanction whatever expenditure the executive officer incurs,” the report said.

Though the private company which set up the aravana plant on BOT basis was expected to hand over the machines in working condition, it failed to honour the contract.

The High Court had ordered that the board should conduct a trial run but no effort was made by the officials concerned to prove that a trial run was conducted on taking over the plant.

The lapses of the executive officer and the chief engineer for reporting on time that the machine was not working cannot escape notice.

Instances of creating artificial scarcity of ‘prasadam’ too had been reported. “After limiting the supplies to the pilgrims, huge quantities were sold through the backdoor. Such practices could be avoided by deploying a senior official to monitor the sale.”

The report sought the intervention of the High Court to prevent malpractices in the distribution of prasadam.

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