Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president A. Padmakumar has accused the Forest Department of ignoring even the Cabinet decision on collecting river sand from the Pampa on the foothills of Sabarimala for various construction works at Sabarimala, Pampa and Nilackal.
Mr. Padmakumar told The Hindu that the Cabinet had decided to permit the TDB collect 20,000 cubic metres of sand from the Pampa where huge quantities of sand had accumulated in the deluge of August last.
He said Forest Minister K. Raju was present at the Cabinet meeting and the matter was conveyed to the top Forest officials. However, the forest personnel at Pampa, on the directions of their departmental top authorities in Thiruvananthapuram, had objected to sand collection by the TDB works department, citing that the Cabinet had not mentioned the location from where the sand could be collected.
The issue was raised at the meeting of the High Power Committee for implementation of the Sabarimala Master Plan, attended by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), in Thiruvananthapuram a week ago and at another meeting attended by the Forest Minister and the Devaswom Minister. The Forest Minister had directed the officials to permit the TDB to collect sand from the Pampa, he said. Though the PCCF too did not raise any objection to sand collection, the TDB was yet to be given clearance for the same, he alleged.
To private parties
The Forest Department, however, had been selling the river sand to private parties and 2,000 cubic metres of sand had already been sold, the TDB chief alleged.
He said the TDB made it clear on several occasions that the board required sand for executing various development projects at Sabarimala, Pampa and at the Nilackal base camp. He alleged that the execution of various major pilgrim amenity projects under the Sabarimala Master Plan was affected owing to the indifferent attitude of the Forest Department.
He said the board was not for any confrontation with the Forest Department. But it should cooperate with the HPC and the board in their efforts to provide better facilities to the pilgrims at Sabarimala and its base camps without disturbing the forest ecosystem, he said.
Mr. Padmakumar said the delay in according permission would only lead to flooding of the Pampa during the peak monsoon season.
