Thiruvananthapuram: The managing committee of Kerala's Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayur will initiate legal action against four Internet companies for accepting orders for "prasadam" or sanctified offerings from devotees through their Websites. At a meeting held Monday evening, the committee also decided to ask the state government to conduct a detailed inquiry into this issue and detect any such violation by other companies. Temple administrator KM Satheesan said he would visit Kochi to meet the temple's lawyer and initiate legal proceedings against the four companies. "The sites which have been identified are poojaonline.com, poojaprasadam.com, sharanam.com and I just can't remember the name of the fourth one. All these companies are based in the metros," he told IANS. "Poojaonline.com had approached us with a request seeking permission for them to accept orders for "prasadam." We did not give them any sanction, nor have we given sanction for any other sites," Mr Satheesan said. "There may be other sites also, but without identifying them we cannot do anything," he added. "The committee also made it clear that we are against sites providing the "prasadam" because we are worried about the quality of the offerings. Even our own home page takes orders only for the `kalabham' (sandalwood paste), plantains and sugar. The prasadam (payasam) gets bad the next day, so we do not send the prasadam.
Only inquiries would reveal whether these companies were sending the prasadam also," said Mr Satheesan. "We are also worried that these companies have been taking innocent devotees for a ride by charging hefty sums of money for their services. We have come to know that these companies are charging sums from Rs 250 to Rs 1,500 for our offerings, which otherwise costs around Rs 10," said the temple administrator. Taking note of the high demand for sanctified offerings on the Net, the temple's official Website is being readied and is to be commissioned shortly. "Our home page is already hosted and anyone can log on to http.personal.vsnl.com/devasom," Mr Satheesan said.
India Abroad News Service
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