Government would move Kerala High Court seeking permission to operate Kerala State Road Transport Corporation services to Uppupara, Pulmedu and Kozhikkanam during the Makaravilakku festival with a view to minimise the pilgrims’ hardship, said Devaswom Minister, V.S.Sivakumar.
The Minister was addressing a meeting of various departmental heads, Travancore Devaswom Board officials and other non-governmental organisations agencies held at Pampa to review the arrangements for the Makaravilakku on Thursday.
He said KSRTC was prepared to operate buses with a short wheelbase on the Kumily-Uppupara (Pulmedu) forest path in the larger interest of reducing the plight of the scores pilgrims who undertake the annual pilgrimage to Sabarimala through this route during the Makaravilakku festival.
Mr Sivakumar said permitting only KSRTC services to Uppupara would effectively prevent exploitation of pilgrims at the hands of private taxi operators.
The Minister said Government has made elaborate preparations to ensure safety of pilgrims who congregate at Panchalimedu, Uppupara, Parunthumpara and other places to worship Makarajyoti on the Makaravilakku day on January 15.
Announcement of various instructions to the pilgrims would be made in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada through public address system at all places where pilgrims assemble for Makarajyoti darshan. Steps have been taken to ensure uninterrupted supply of drinking water supply, medical care and to install Aska lights at various places where pilgrims congregate during the Makaravilakku festival.
Master plan projects
He said Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, would convene a high-level meeting soon after the culmination of the ongoing pilgrim season to speed up various projects prescribed in the Sabarimala Master Plan.
Completion of the two queue complexes under construction at Saramkuthy and Marakkoottom, another two new queue complexes and construction of Nadappanthal along the Pampa-Sannidhanam path will also be carried out in the next six months.
The Minister said special arrangements will be made to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the main base camp of pilgrims at Nilackal. More police force will be deployed at Sabarimala, Pampa, Nilackal, Pulmedu, Parunthumpara and Panchalimedu during the Makaravilaku festival.
Mr Sivakumar said a well-equipped medical team with ambulance facility would be deployed at Pumledu too in the backdrop of the stampede tragedy that had claimed 102 lives on the previous Makaravilaku day. Sufficient police personnel would be deployed at Pulmedu too, he said.
P.J.Kurien, MP; P.C.George, Government chief whip; Raju Abraham, E.S.Bijimol, both MLAs; M.Rajagopalan Nair, TDB president; K.V.Padmanabhan, K.Cicily, board members; K.Jayakumar, Additional Chief Secretary; P.Chandrashekharan, Additional Director General of Police; P.Venugopal, Pathanamthitta Collector; Mini Antony, Kottayam Collector; Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, Ayyappa Seva Sanghom president and K.Ravikumar, TDB chief engineer, also attended the meeting.
