Explosives' licence holder Sheena Suresh won the tender for carrying out 'Vedi Vazhipadu' (cracker-offering) at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala, but being a woman in her 40s, she can't personally supervise the work, as women aged 10 to 50 aren't allowed inside the hill shrine.
Her husband has been authorised to supervise the work, even though he doesn't have a licence for explosives. Allegations have come up that the cracker-offering unit is poorly supervised. There was even a fire mishap at the unit injuring three workers. Officials said that the tender norms stipulated that the licensee winning the tender should personally supervise the work.
Suresh received much attention by leading the fireworks at the 'Thrissur Pooram' last May at the age of 41. She won the tender for the cracker-offering at Sabarimala for a year last November.
Travancore Devaswom Board president K Anandagopan told DH that since she quoted the best rate, she was awarded the tender. It was not possible to deny the tender to her citing her gender as it could lead to allegations of discrimination, he said.
He also said that since the woman could not visit the hill shrine owing to the restriction on women in the 10-50 age group, she had given the power of attorney to another person to be present at Sabarimala to supervise the cracker-offering. All these were done after obtaining legal opinion, he said.
While Suresh was not available for comments, her husband Suresh told DH that he was authorised by Sheena to supervise the cracker offering at Sabarimala. He also clarified that he doesn't have a licence for explosives now. Though he possessed the licence earlier, it had to be transferred owing to personal reasons, he said
Regarding the fire mishap at Sabarimala, he said that an unexpected breeze contributed to the mishap.
A preliminary inquiry had reportedly found that a spark from a cracker which fell on other crackers caused the mishap. The carelessness of the workers was also cited in the report.
Meanwhile, Thrissur-based Heritage Animal Task Force secretary V K Venkitachalam had filed a petition with the Thrissur District Collector urging that Sheena should not be given permission to conduct fireworks in temples in the district in view of the mishap at Sabarimala.