Prasada tragedy! Govt move practically impossible to enforce: Activists

Mangaluru: The shocking prasada tragedy at Chamarajanagar, where an offering prepared at a temple killed 17 devotees as it was laced with a pesticide, has triggered discussions on the need to check food at places of worship. But activists, while agreeing that such a move is imperative, feel that it is practically impossible to enforce. 

“The government has proposed checking of food at every temple and installing CCTV cameras in kitchens. But the question is whether it is practical. There are thousands of endowments and almost equal number of temples that are run by private individuals, families, maths and organisations. Appointing officials to check the quality of the food in each of these temples will be impossible,” activist Shashidhar Shetty told Deccan Chronicle.

“Instead, the government can set up squads that regularly conduct surprise inspections at temples and check food. This will bring some fear, not only among miscreants, but also among temple administrators as there will be a body that checks not only safety but also the quality of food served to the devotees as prasada,” he said.

Checking food at every temple may be a tough task as many temples distribute not just rice as prasada, but also laddoos, payasa, appam, vada and panchakajjaya. 

The government may have to set up a separate mechanism to check the safety of these too.

“The question is will government officials really check the food quality. As per the food Act, officials have to check the quality of food served at hotels and other eateries. But does our food department really carry out such checks regularly? The proposal to check food at temples too will go along the same lines. It will just be on paper and there will hardly be any people following it," he said. 

Mr Shetty said that the Chamarajanagar incident was a shocker, but the excess and unscientific use of silent killer pesticide has gone unnoticed. 

“Every year, around 1,344 metric tonnes of pesticides are used only for horticulture products in the state. This does not include pesticides used for agricultural crops, cashew plantation and others. In addition, several pesticides that are banned, like DDT, are still available in other names and forms! All these pesticides are used unscientifically which finally end up in our body. If three bottles of pesticide have killed 17 people in Chamarajanagar, they are silently and slowly harming us every day which we hardly notice,” he warned.