CM’s order on chaulai laddoo prasad at shrines violated

Ajay Ramola

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Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, May 17

Chief Minister Harish Rawat has issued directions for distribution of chaulai laddoos along with other local products at shrines during the Char Dham Yatra but the officials concerned are discouraging women associated with various self-help groups, who prepare local sweets to be served as ‘prasad’. The officials have not made any arrangements for the self-help groups for the purchase of their products or providing outlets on the premises of the Yamunotri and Gangotri shrines in Uttarkashi district.

Rawat’s direction for serving chaulai laddoos aims at promoting the production of local crops, such as Aramanthus and Kuttu. This will make it easy for the locals to earn livelihood.

Dwarika Semwal, Secretary of the Himalayan Paryavaran Jadi Buti Agro Santhan in Uttarkashi, said more than 50 women along with men under the Uttarakhand Mahila Evam Bal Vikas Samiti began preparing chaulai laddoos and other products such as incense sticks to be served as prasad to the devotees four years back. They went through a training programme at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) in Mysore to learn the technique of keeping the prasad preserved for more than six months.

“A collection centre was inaugurated at Kharsali village in Yamunotri four years ago where self-help groups brought their produce to be sent to the main shrine for distribution to devotees. The temple committee had to buy the products at a nominal cost to serve it to the visitors. But due to the apathy of the administration and the temple committee, the self-help groups are unable to function smoothly,” said Semwal.

Semwal met the DM Uttarkashi and also sent a fax to the Chief Minister, demanding either the temple committee should buy all the produce or provide the self-help groups an outlet near the shrine at a nominal cost. He asked the local administration to intervene and talk to the temple committee, which has “refused” to look into the issue due to internal politics at the shrines of Yamunotri and Gangotri. Semwal said self-help groups made other products too, such as painting of holy shrines on the riverbed stones that could be given to the devotees as souvenirs.

When contacted, Pawan Semwal, vice-president of the Yamunotri Temple Committee, said there was no arrangement presently for serving the chaulai laddoos at the shrine. “The temple committee can’t take the risk of serving any produce until it is tested by any food standard authority. A negligence can result in a large-scale food poisoning,” he said, adding that if any organisation was ready to take up such a task, it should send a letter through local administration which would be placed before the temple committee for approval.