Aluva town and its adjacent village situated along the banks of Periyar heaved a sigh of relief as there was no alarming rise in the river water level as feared owing to the discharge of huge volumes of water from Cheruthoni dam in Idukki, Kerala.
The district administration and revenue officials were in a heightened state of alert ever since all five shutters of Cheruthoni dam were opened on Friday afternoon leading to manifold increase in the discharge of water.
It was expected to worsen the situation along the banks of Periyar in Aluva and adjacent areas, which were already in a state of flux after many low lying areas were already inundated. A further rise in water level was supposed to hit the areas hard when water reached downstream on Friday morning. Teams of Navy, Coast Guard, Army, National Disaster Response Force, fire and rescue service and police were deployed all along vulnerable spots.
“The rise in water level has been very negligible and there is no reason to be anxious. In fact, considering the width of Periyar in Aluva it could contain even another one metre rise in water level,” Food Safety Commissioner M.G. Rajamanickam, who, along with Kochi Metro Rail Limited managing director A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish has been put in charge of coordinating and monitoring the relief and rehabilitation operations in Ernakulam district, told The Hindu while inspecting the ‘vavu bali’ rituals along Aluva Manappuram on Saturday morning.
Mr. Rajamanickam reached the district from the capital in the wee hours of Saturday. He visited the control room at Aluva and discussed the flood situation with District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla. Mr. Rajamanickam said that close to 10,000 people remain relocated to 69 relief camps in the district with the most number of camps being operated in Paravur taluk.
‘Vavu bali’ under way
Meanwhile, the ‘vavu bali’ rituals organised by the Devaswom Board got underway along the banks of Periyar near Aluva Manappuram at 4 a.m. However, unlike every year, the turnout was low.
The alternative plan drawn up by the Devaswom Board after the Manappuram and the ‘bali mandapam’ were completely submerged kicked into motion round 11 p.m. on Friday after ensuring that there would be no alarming encroachment of water onto the shore.
Arrangements were made for people to offer bali to propitiate their ancestors along the road leading to the Manappuram. However, there was a strict ban on people taking dip in Periyar and offering the bali in the ritualistic way on safety grounds. They were allowed only to throw it to the water from the banks.
In the meantime, almost half of those who took the 41 ‘bali tharas’ of Devaswom Board for offering bali in an auction demanded a refund of fees on the ground that the ritual was performed not on Devaswom land. “It is not going to happen as we have made alternative arrangements with the permission of the District Collector. So whether it happened on our property or not, we have made the arrangements and so a refund was out of question,” said D. Jayakumar, administrative officer, Aluva Siva Temple.
