THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Travancore Dewaswom Board president A Padmakumar has said the board is ready for talks with anyone for peace at Sabarimala. He told reporters on Wednesday that the board does not have any reservations to talk to any group on the issue. He said the board is expecting a positive result on the late petition in the Sabarimala issue.
Padmakumar said Union Minster Alphons Kannanthanam’s statement the Central Government has provided Rs 92 crore to Sabarimala is false and added only an amount of Rs 6 crore was sanctioned, but the amount released was only Rs 1.23 crore.
Padmakumar also said the Devaswom Board has not deliberately delayed the late petition and said the other claims on the same are wrong. He said there is a concerted effort to destroy temples and added the campaign of ‘No Donation’ to temples will affect 1,258 temples and there are 12,000 employees and pensioners under the temples of TDB and the protesters should take this into consideration.
The TDB president said the board cannot support the destruction of Sabarimala and said no action will be taken against the believers. Padmakumar said he had a meeting with DGP Loknath Behra and after this meeting several curbs were lifted by the police. He said he is expecting the Sabarimala issue to be solved peacefully and said Sabarimala Sannidhanam should be excluded from politics.