Kochi: The Travancore Devaswom Board has withdrawn its decision to impose a fee for Tilak for Ayyappa devotees. In Erumely temple, Ayyappa devotees were charged a fee for wearing Tilak. The Devaswom Board informed about the withdrawal of the decision in the High Court.
At the same time, the district unit of the temple coordination committee had accused the district unit of imposing the fee as a challenge to the Hindus and to harm the devotees and intensified their protest against the agreement. The Devaswom Board stated that the decision has been withdrawn and the Erumely Sreedharma Sastha temple has installed three mirrors near the footpath and provided facilities for free touching of sandalwood and vermilion.
Erumely Sreedharma Sastha Temple is about to tender the right to place that containing sandalwood, saffron and vibhooti at four places on the pavement. Manoj S Nair and Arun Satish, natives of Erumely filed a petition against this. Earlier, the court had asked whether the devotees were being paid to touch the shrine inside the temple.
