Berhampur: Tara Tarini Temple authorities in Odisha’s Ganjam district have initiated steps to provide Anna Prasad to the devotees at a comparatively cheaper price, with potentially increasing efficiency, hygiene, and capacity.
They have set up a sophisticated Automated Cooking System in the temple kitchen on the ground floor. The system is considered the first of its kind in any temple of Odisha. The cooking equipment run by electricity and can cook Anna Prasad including anna or khechidi, dal, mixed vegetable curry, dalma, khata and khir for 5000 devotees within 30 minutes.
It is part of the Rs 68-cr infrastructure development plan of the Tara Tarini Temple of the state government. The cooking unit and the stainless steel table and chair for the devotees in the newly built ‘Prasad Seban Kakhya’ costs around Rs one crore, temple officials said.
Earlier the Anna Prasad was cooked by fuel wood or LPG gas. A very limited number of devotees were getting the Anna Prasad as there was no facility to cook more.
Devotee were paying Rs 100 for each Anna Prasad which was supplied between 1 pm and 2 pm after the offerings to the Goddess at 12-45 pm every day.
The kitchen equipment installed in the temple complex during March last and Anna Prasad to thousands of devotees were supplied free of cost on every Tuesday in the Chaitra celebrations last from March 15 to April 12 on experimental basis.
The kitchen will be totally managed by Sevayats. One operator from the agency based at Bhubaneswar who provided the equipment still training 10 Sevayats about how to operate the equipment and cook. The operator also trained some Sevayats in the kitchen about the usage today.
A high power committee has also been formed to submit a report on the number of devotees interested for Anna Prasad daily, the taste of the Prasad and other aspects.
The kitchen will be fully operational after a mechanism for lowering the rate of Anna Prasad from below Rs 100 and the high power committee gives it’s final report, sources said.