Sabarimala: With the famed Sabarimala temple recording the highest-ever revenue this pilgrimage season, the counting of the heaps of coins received as ‘kanikka’ (offerings) is proving to be an arduous task.
This is more so, after the efforts of the officials to sieve and count the coins were found to be impractical.
Dhanlaxmi Bank made available a special sieve to sort out coins of various sizes years back.
However, TDB officials point out that when the coins are deposited in the huge sieve, coins of various denominations pass through the same hole of a specific size. There are coins of denominations Re 1 and Rs 5 of the same size. Similarly, there are same-sized coins of denominations Re 1 and Rs 2.
The officials informed the Hundi Special officer that the sieving of coins may result in losses for the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
The top official too examined the method and found the version of the officials true. Hence, the counting of the coins is progressing at a slow pace as the officials have to sort them manually before counting.
The heavy influx of pilgrims during the Mandala-Makaravilakku season, which is set to conclude tomorrow, resulted in the coffers at the temple premises overflowing with cash and coins in no time.
The season, which saw the lifting of Covid restrictions, has registered a record revenue of Rs 315.46 as on January 17.
The enormous volume of coins received as offerings from pilgrims is kept in three corners of a huge storeroom and appears like mountains of coins. Sources said the counting task can’t be completed even by tomorrow when the temple closes.
More areas in the Devaswom Annadana Mandapam will be used for the coin counting purpose from tomorrow onwards. Only after that, it could be determined when the burgeoning task could be completed.
The counted money will be collected by Dhanlaxmi Bank officials from special vaults set aside for the purpose at the temple premise. The bank refused to accept notes that got torn after getting entangled in conveyor belts, used to ship the money from hundis to the huge vaults.
Similarly, it also didn’t accept soiled notes.
Pilgrims used to keep notes along with betel leaves and areca nuts in tightly tied pouches of their holy bags (irumudikettu) that they carry on their heads while trekking the hill.
They later deposit the same as offerings. The notes get soiled due to the decaying of betel leaves. Last year, too, the bank refused to accept such notes.