THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Justice M R Hariharan Nair Commission which probed into the Pulmedu stampede at Sabarimala which claimed 102 lives in January last year, submitted its final report to the State Government on Thursday. The commission in its report ruled out the possibility of sabotage in the incident but pointed out shortcomings on the part of police and Forest Department officials.
The report recommended various measures to control crowd movement, inflow of pilgrims and other arrangements to avert any such tragedy in future.
The commission recommended arrangements to be made for parking vehicles and measures to enable pilgrims to have the view of “makarajyothi” from different places to avoid overcrowding at one place.
Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar, who was also present with the Chief Minister, said that before the start of the next pilgrimage season all the recommendations made by Hariharan Nair Commission would be implemented. “Already all the recommendations made by the commission in its interim report had been implemented,’’ he said.
The stampede occurred when pilgrims were returning after witnessing ‘makarajyothi’ at Sabarimala at Pulmedu forest area near the temple on January 14.
The Hariharan Nair Commission report urged the government to bring out a security manual, including installing removable tower-lights on the routes to Sabarimala.