Sabarimala pilgrims are likely to face many problems this year too during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku festival. Like the previous season, they will have to bear with the badly damaged Swami Ayyappan Road, pollution of the Pampa, drinking water scarcity, long wait for the ‘darshan' at the Ayyappa shrine, and fleecing by commercial establishments.
Owing to the lack of coordination among the government departments and the lax attitude of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), many development schemes in the pilgrim centre are being delayed.
With six months left for the next pilgrim season, the TDB has not even started the proposed widening of the Swami Ayyappan Road or completed the groundwork for the Kunnar Drinking Water Supply augmentation scheme. The High Power Committee for Implementation of Sabarimala Master Plan and various experts had cleared the project, meant for increasing the storage capacity of Kunnar dam, besides constructing a small reservoir downstream to tide over drinking water scarcity at Sabarimala during summer.
Sole supply source
The project has been under discussion for two years. But, neither has the Forest Department demarcated the 0.2 hectares of forest land required for the project, nor has the Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, conducted a feasibility study on the project. The water brought by way of gravitational flow from Kunnar dam situated in the upper forest reaches has been the lone source of drinking water supply to the Sannidhanam.
A sewage treatment plant at the Sannidhanam, as envisaged in the Sabarimala Master Plan, still remains on paper allegedly because of the apathetic attitude of the Kerala Water Authority, the implementing agency of the project. Delay in setting up a sewage treatment plant at the Sannidhanam means unabated flow of filth into the Pampa through the Njunangar stream.
Exorbitant rates
During the previous season, pilgrims were fleeced at the latrine and bathing complexes at Paandithavalom near Sannidhanam. There were reports of contractors charging three to four times the user fee during rush days. It was also alleged that pilgrims had to pay 100 to 200 times the fee for shelters on the eve of the Makaravilakku day at the Sannidhanam.
The Swami Ayyappan Road through which articles for prasadom preparation are transported from Pampa to Sannidhanam is badly damaged. Though the Kerala High Court had accorded sanction a few months ago for widening the road from three metres to five metres and concreting, no earnest efforts have been taken by the Board to launch the work.
Now, with hardly a month left for the monsoon to begin, no major project can be launched in Sabarimala. The road work too is likely to be delayed by a year.
