Devotees blame virtual queue system for decline in footfall at Sabarimala

The devaswom office at Sabarimala has been flooded with complaints over the virtual system.
Sabarimala
Sabarimala

SABARIMALA: While the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) tries its best to boost dipping revenues, glitches in the virtual queue system for Sabarimala devotees are playing spoilsport. Despite the government allowing the board to permit 10,000 pilgrims per day at the hill shrine, only 2,387 devotees turned up on April 11 and 989 came on April 12. 

The temple usually witnesses heavy rush during the eight-day Vishu festival. However, only a few devotees turned up.  The pilgrims blamed the virtual queue system for the dip in footfall, saying the bookings close within an hour of opening. The actual number of bookings per day is just around 2,500 and there is lack of transparency, they said.

The devaswom office at Sabarimala has been flooded with complaints over the virtual system. Concerned by the issues with the virtual queue system operated by the Kerala Police, TDB president N Vasu told TNIE that the board will introduce its own virtual queue system before the next festival season. Fund crunch due to low footfall has hit TDB hard. It was expecting 1.4 lakh pilgrims during the 14-day annual festival from March 15 to 28. 

However, only 25,000 devotees turned up. The revenue generated during the period was Rs 1.5 crore. The revenue during the two month mandala-makaravilakku festival also nosedived from Rs 269 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 21 crore in 2020-21. 

“The board needs Rs 40 crore per month for disbursement of salary and pension besides administration expenses. There has been a steep decline in income after the lockdown and we are managing the situation by digging into our reserves. The inventorying of gold will be completed within a month and we are planning to utilise the gold monetising scheme to raise money. The 2.5 per cent interest will be enough to tide over the crisis. The inventorying of items like lamps and brass utensils of the temple will be completed by May-end. We are planning to auction them,” he said. TDB has stopped construction works at Sabarimala and other temples due to financial crunch.

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