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Ayodhya: Coal furnaces keep community kitchen running
Ayodhya's Mahavir Trust kitchen adapts to LPG crisis by switching to coal furnaces, serving 15,000 pilgrims daily with three meals.
Despite the perception of LPG crisis amid tension in West Asia, the biggest community kitchen at Ayodhya’s Amawa Ram Mandir run by the Mahavir Trust continues to serve pilgrims as it has switched to coal furnaces.
Around 15,000 pilgrims come to the temple for free food daily. The Trust serves them breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served from 8:30 am to 10 am, offering four items. Lunch is served from 11 am to 3 pm offering 11 food items, and dinner is served from 7 pm to 9 pm, offering nine items.
To keep the kitchen running, the Trust depended on a daily supply of 35 to 40 LPG cylinders. On March 10, the Trust had to shut the kitchen in the second half due to the LPG crisis. “All of a sudden we had to confront the LPG crisis. When the gas agencies stopped sending LPG cylinders on March 10, we used reserve stock of cylinders as a stop-gap arrangement,” said Pankaj Jha, who runs the kitchen.
“We began the process to construct a furnace on our campus on March 11. At present, we have six furnaces - five big and one small. We are running a full kitchen and serving food as usual three times in a day,” Jha added.
On Saturday, the Mahavir Trust served food to pilgrims at all scheduled times. The Mani Ram Das Chhavni, Dashrath Mahal and other temples are also running kitchens. However, all of them run kitchens only for sadhus of their sects and followers. They do not serve food to pilgrims.
The Mani Ram Das Chhavi, the highest body of saints in Ayodhya, is the Mutt where Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, chairman of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust, resides. It serves food to around 500 people daily, mostly sadhus.
“We have shifted to a furnace from LPG cylinders,” said Kamal Nayan Das, successor to Nritya Gopal Das. In Sita Rasoi, only Khichdi is offered to pilgrims in leaf plates as prasad. It does not offer free food to pilgrims. Instead, the Sita Rasoi runs a paid kitchen service for pilgrims.
