Mangaluru: In an effort to mitigate the LPG crisis, Kadri Sri Manjunatha Temple has temporarily switched to firewood for cooking meals for devotees. The change took effect Thursday after the temple struggled to procure cylinders.Temple trustee Dilraj Alva told TOI the temple began experiencing LPG supply disruption from Wednesday. To ensure the daily anna prasada continued uninterrupted, the managing committee decided to revert to firewood.
“For the time being, we arranged firewood. We will observe the situation for a week. The temple management felt that devotees should not be put to hardship because of the shortage,” Alva said.The temple serves meals to around 2,000 devotees daily, with the number rising to over 3,500 from Saturday to Monday. Under normal circumstances, it requires four 19-kg LPG cylinders a day, and six over the weekend. The regular menu includes rice, pickle, saaru, gassi and payasa.The management is also preparing contingency plans if the shortage continues. “We will wait for a week and review the situation. If the crisis persists, we may have to simplify the menu and serve only rice, saaru and pickle,” Alva said.
