SABARIMALA: The police authorities’ demand to provide free prasadam to the police personnel posted at Sabarimala for the two-month-long Mandala-Makaravilakku season has put the Devaswom Board in a fix. The request for giving free prasadam kit, which comprises a container of aravana and a packet of appam prasadam, to each of the 5,000-odd police personnel in each of the four batches will require a total financial commitment of nearly Rs 30 lakh from the Devaswom authorities, which is already facing a slump in revenue, reliable sources said. The required number of kits, they said, would also be more than double than the last pilgrimage season.
In this scenario, Devaswom authorities here have refused to the request, saying an amount of Rs 5 lakh or above needs the clearance of the Devaswom Bench of the High Court, the sources said. They said the request would be considered at the board-level as the number of kits would be higher than last year.
Drop in pilgrim arrivals
The arrival of pilgrims, including from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra, dropped below 20,000 on Wednesday against 36,340 on Tuesday and 44,525 on Monday. As a result, there was hardly any rush at the Holy Steps even at 3 am when the temple opened for the day’s poojas. There were also fewer pilgrims on the fly-over and at the Sopanam than previous days.There was hardly any queue of pilgrims for the ‘neyyabhishekam’ offering, while there was no queue at the prasdam counters at Lower Thirumuttom and Malikappuram.
CM justifies Thillankeri using microphone
T’Puram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has justified RSS leader Valsan Thillankeri using police microphone to address protestors at Sabarimala, when the temple opened for a day for Chithira Atta Visesham.
“The police gave its microphone to one of the protestors to bring the situation under control. When a 52-year-old woman reached Sannidhanam, the protests were going out of control. It is then the police gave its microphone to Valsan Thillankeri to avoid any untoward incidents and make the protestors quiet,” Pinarayi told the Assembly.