The duty of police at Sabarimala was not maintenance of law and order, but serving the pilgrims, A. Hemachandran, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), and chief police coordinator at Sabarimala, has said. The ADGP was addressing the new batch of police personnel deployed at Sabarimala on Wednesday.
He called upon the police personnel on duty at Sabarimala to behave in a decent manner to the pilgrims, besides making every possible effort to avoid overcrowding and accidents.
Mr. Hemachandan said the police should desist themselves from unnecessary quarrels with devotees. The personnel on each duty point should explore the possibility of regulating the crowd in the event of an unprecedented rush of devotees, he added.
The ADGP said pushing and pulling of pilgrims who reached the temple Sopanam through the iron barricades had been a main complaint received against those who had been posted for crowd management at the Sopanam. It was also a fact that the pilgrims would not move voluntarily when they come face to face with the presiding deity inside the sanctum sanctorum and the police had to use force to make the queue of pilgrims moving, he said.
Mr. Hemachandran said a total of 1,350 police personnel, that include 22 DySPs, 38 Circle Inspectors (CIs), and 125 Sub Inspectors (SIs), had been deployed at the Sannidhanam under the Police Special Officer, A. Unnirajan. A total of 750 personnel, under 12 DySPs, 38 CIs, and 125 SIs and ASIs had been deployed at the major base camp of Pampa. Sunil Babu is the new Police Special Officer there.
G. Vijayan, Commandant of the National Disaster Response Force battalion, and Sunilkumar, commandant of the Rapid Action Force attached to the Central Reserve Police Force, attended the function.
