Sabarimala as national pilgrim centre?
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The All India Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajam has urged the Centre to declare Sabarimala as a national pilgrim centre, so that the provision of basic amenities for pilgrims will become statutory and constitutional obligation of both the Central and state governments.
The central executive committee of the Samajam, which met in Hyderabad, recently, said the devotees undertaking a pilgrimage to Sabarimala have been managing without any basic amenities like food, drinking water, medical aid and accommodation.
The Centre should take immediate steps to redress the grievances of crores of Sabarimala devotees, such as operating 50 more trains during the season from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
According to the Samajam, Sabarimala contributes a lot to strengthen the national integration and national prestige, since 5 crore devotees visit the shrine.
The railways, which had registered a revenue of Rs 300 crore during the last season through ticket collections, had not spent any sum to improve the facilities for the benefit of the devotees, the Samajam said and urged the railway authorities to complete the doubling of the Ernakulam to Chengannur line by this year end.
It suggested the constitution of greater development authority for Sabarimala and asked the Kerala government to seek the support of the neighbouring states to deploy police at the temple to manage the crowd and thereby resolve the lingual problem faced by devotees from other states.
Sudharshan Reddy, vice chairman of the Samajam, presided.
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