The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has suffered a revenue loss of over ₹100 crore from Sabarimala alone during the past three months owing to the lockdown, according to board president N. Vasu.
Mr. Vasu told The Hindu on Thursday that the board’s total revenue loss was ₹200 crore, as devotees were not allowed in 1,245 major and minor temples under it. The TDB used to get a fairly good revenue from Sabarimala during the 10-day annual festival and the Vishu festival. This year, the TDB could not conduct the temple festival and pilgrims were not permitted to visit Sabarimala during Vishu too, badly hitting the board coffers.
₹40 cr. for salary, pension
He said the board needed ₹40 crore a month for disbursing salary to nearly 5,000 Devaswom staff and pension to around 4,000 retired employees. Mr. Vasu said the TDB was struggling to disburse salary and pension.
He said the board would explore the possibility of permitting darshan at its temples in a regulated way once the lockdown norms were relaxed and the government permitted the same.
Meanwhile, Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajom president Akkeeramon Kalidasan Bhattathiripad called upon the government to take necessary steps to facilitate regulated entry for devotees at various temples in the State.
Temple opened
The Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala opened on Thursday afternoon for the five-day monthly rituals in the Malayalam month of Edavom that begins on Friday. Melsanthi A.K. Sudheer Namboodiri opened the sanctum sanctorum in the presence of Tantri Kandararu Maheswararu Mohanararu at 5 p.m.
Only skeletal staff have been deployed at Sabarimala and only routine rituals will be performed at the temple. The temple will be closed after the Athazhapuja on May 19 evening.
