THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The intervention of the Suchitwa Mission and city corporation with a ‘green protocol’ turned the Pongala festival of the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in the city on Sunday clean and safe, with thousands of woman devotees and organisers complying fully with the guidelines.
Responding to a call to shun the use of single-use plastic and other polluting materials, the devotees converged for the festival with steel plates and glasses, which made a marked difference to the programme this time.
A campaign with the theme ‘Green pongala, Safe pongala’ was conducted by the green army volunteers of the corporation and resource persons of the Suchitwa Mission, along with the support of the temple trust, ahead of the festival. It created a huge impact among the devotees and organisers of various related activities like the free distribution of food and drinking water in every nook and corner of the city.
Wherever isolated cases of using such use-and-throw materials were found, the enforcement squad and resource persons intervened promptly to get them removed.
The green protocol and the action plan were drawn-up during the meetings held at the office of LSG Minister M B Rajesh since February 10.