As authorities struggle to rein in the continuing wave of fake bookings of online queue slots to Sabarimala, the Sabarimala Special Commissioner has sought to bring the virtual queue system under the direct control of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) instead of the State police.
In his report to the Kerala High Court recently, M. Manoj, Sabarimala Special Commissioner and District Judge, submitted that the system and software with the domain name www.sabarimala.org be entrusted to the TDB.
“It is suggested that the TDB, the trustee of the deity, has the duty to effectively manage the property of the deity, provide puja booking facilities to devotees, augment income of the deity, generate maximum donations for Annadanam, and for that purpose, it should exercise control of the web portal/web application for booking online virtual queue slots for Sabarimala darsan and the domain name www.sabarimala.org, developed by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS),” stated the report.
In the report, the official further calls for shifting the discretionary quota of the virtual queue slots to the direct control of the TDB, which may post officers from its cadre or from deputation from the Kerala Government . He also seeks a direction to the board to procure online cloud storage server facility to host the portal while the TCS be directed to operate it as per directions of the board.
The TDB and the TCS may be directed to share the data of pilgrims required by the Kerala Police as part of effective crowd management verification of virtual queue coupons. It is also suggested that the board be directed to take steps to register trademark/patents of intellectual properties of the deity to prevent its misuse and usurping of revenue by third parties, it added.
The report, submitted on a direction by the High Court, is slated for consideration on October 21.
