THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran’s claim that all basic facilities have been provided at Sabarimala is baseless, said Congress leader V S Sivakumar.Former devaswom minister, who visited the Sannidhanam the other day with MLAs Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Adoor Prakash, said no basic amenities have been put in place at Sabarimala and Pampa.
He said that both the Devaswom Board and the government are competing with each to reduce pilgrim inflow and this will lead to a drastic fall in temple revenue. He added the government should keep in mind that several temples under TDB are dependent on the revenue from Sabarimala.
There are no halting places at Nilakkal, Pampa and Sannidhanam and drinking water facility is not available for the devotees. Sivakumar alleged the state government and Devaswom Board have done nothing to restore the Pampa and its banks following the devastating floods.
He said Sannidhanam has become a hill of waste. During the previous season 5,000 volunteers from Mata Amritananda Mayi Math had cleaned the temple and its premises. This year no such activity has taken place.
Sivakumar said several projects were implemented through UPA’s Sabarimala master plan.
For creating the blue print of Sabarimala master plan, the UPA government had sanctioned `50 crore and these projects were realised with the clearance from the Centre and the Supreme court.