THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The increase in the number of women, children and physically challenged devotees is the reason for the delay in pilgrims’ movement at Sabarimala, Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president PS Prasanth said on Tuesday.
“Around 70-75 persons can climb the Holy Steps at a time. The number will come down when the number of women, children and physically challenged rises. Normally, 4,000 persons can climb the steps in an hour,” he told reporters at the board headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
Prasanth, however, could not provide data to substantiate his claim that the number of pilgrims in these categories had risen. He said he understood the trend during his six visits to the hill shrine after the start of the pilgrimage season. The board has made proposals for better crowd control at the meeting chaired by the CM.
Prasanth said the average waiting time in queues has come down to four hours following the one-hour extension of darshan time and the reduction in the number of virtual queue tickets from 90,000 to 80,000. Normalcy will be restored in two days. The dynamic queue system introduced this year provides comfort to 4,200 persons at a time. Water and biscuits are given to the people waiting in the queue.
The board has placed an order for 42 lakh biscuits. Prasanth said the issue was blown out of proportion by political opponents. Long wait for Darsan is nothing new at Sabarimala. The allegations of lack of preparation are false and politically motivated. Board member A Ajikumar said he suspected a sabotage attempt behind the controversy over the failure in crowd control.