Provide food, water to pilgrims at Sabrimala halting points, says HC
Regarding arrangements made to deal with the increase in numbers, Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P S Prasanth said that parking numbers were increased from 7,000 to 8,000
Kochi:
The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) must provide water, snacks and other facilities at “edathavalams (halting points)” to devotees on their journey to the Lord Ayyappa shrine in Sabarimala for the annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage, the Kerala high court said in a special sitting on Monday.
Taking note of reports that devotees, including children, were stuck on the roads to Sabarimala for over 12 hours without food or water, a bench of justices Anil K Narendran and G Girish issued the directive, a lawyer associated with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The court also directed the state police chief to supervise crowd management and deploy additional police personnel if necessary, the lawyer said.
There is a huge rush this year for the Sabarimala pilgrimage. Devotees from the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were seen on TV channels saying that they were stopped at various places en route to Sabarimala without any arrangements for food and water. Pilgrims at Sannidhanam in Sabarimala were seen complaining that they have been stuck in queues for hours on end.
Around 1.2 lakh people arrived at the shrine on Sunday and close to these numbers were there on Monday as well, TDB officials said. This year there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of children undertaking the pilgrimage, they said, declining to be named.
The huge influx of pilgrims during the Mandala puja posed problems, TDB president P S Prasanth told reporters. Regarding arrangements made to deal with the increase in numbers, he said that parking numbers were increased from 7,000 to 8,000. Instructions have been given that vehicles were stopped in areas where water and food were available, he added.
“I spoke to senior police officers of Pathanamthitta district and they informed me that vehicles were stopped in areas where water and food were available,” Prasanth said. “We believe no one will have to go back without getting darshan of Lord Ayyappa.”
As many as 88,000 pilgrims were booked through a virtual queue on Monday and people were also expected to turn up without any registration, police said. Authorities have taken steps to ensure pilgrims were not stopped along the pilgrimage route, officers said.
