THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president Prayar Gopalakrishnan rubbished the recommendation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to alter the VIP Darshan facility at Sabarimala during a special Mandala-Makaravilakku meeting held on Wednesday. Mr Vijayan has recommended TDB to rework the present Virtual Queue on Tirupati Model. He has also suggested that the Sabarimala should be kept open round the clock like Tirupati and asked TDB to take a decision on this.
Mr Gopalakrishnan, former congress MLA, was quick to reject the idea. Special Darshan in Tirupati allows pilgrims to visit temple in a hassle-free manner, based on a three-day advance booking. However, in Sabarimala Virtual queue, the system generates only fixed number of coupons for every hour. Mr Gopalakrishan expressed his displeasure in police department computing the inflow of pilgrims and preparing a report without consulting with the TDB.
"Decisions in all religious institution should be taken in consultation with the legally elected bodies connected to it," Mr Gopalakrishnan said. Mr Vijayan countered the statement saying that all final decisions will be taken by the state government. Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran, Ministers K.K. Shylaja, K. Raju, A.K. Saseendran, K.T. Jaleel attended the meeting. MLAs P.C. George, Raju Abraham and MP Anto Antony were also present.
State plans travellers’ inns along the road to shrine
In order to stop pilgrims from cooking food and urinating on roadside, travellers' inns will be constructed along the road to Sabarimala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Toilet facilities and vegetarian eateries will be set up in these travellers' inns alongside fuel stations, he said while addressing a meeting ahead of the Mandala-Makaravilakku season.
"In first phase, travellers' inns will be constructed along National Highways and then on state highways. Fines will be imposed on those cooking and urinating on the roadside," according to the minutes of the meeting. Soap, oil and washing powder will be banned in Pampa. All pilgrims will have to take a bath before taking dip at Pampa. Directions have been given to find new routes to Sannidhanam to make travelling easy. The meeting also decided to expand the prasada distribution facilities.
The security will be beefed up by installing more w CCTV cameras and biometric attendance will be made compulsory for all officers. Since the LPG cylinders have been stored in an insecure manner, forest department has been asked to allot land to construct a cylinder storage facility. The Chief Minister assured the meeting that, in the long-run, a new airport and a rope way from Pampa to Sannidhanam will also be constructed.
