A meeting of temple affairs ministers of southern states will be held in Kottayam on October 23 to discuss preparations for the two-month-long pilgrim season of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, starting mid-November.
The Kerala Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, who has convened the meeting, will brief the ministers concerned about arrangements already done and elicit their views on improving the facilities, official sources said.
Devotees from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry account for a vast majority of over 30 million pilgrims visiting the shrine every year.
Stampede last year
The ministerial meet also assumes significance in view of the stampede tragedy at Pulimedu near Sabarimala, which claimed 102 lives last year.
The Ministers and officials would focus on key issues such as crowd management, parking of vehicles, keeping the ecologically-sensitive environs of the area pollution free and basic needs of pilgrims like clean drinking water and medical aid, an official of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the temple, said.
Inter-state events
Besides deploying large contingents of state police, special commandos, disaster management personnel and auxiliary forces, the state would also seek the services of forces from the neighbouring states since the ‘Mandala' and ‘Makaravilakku' pilgrimage of the hill shrine is a mega inter-state event. Ahead of the Ministers' conference, a high-level meet was held here yesterday to discuss the ongoing works.
Besides Mr Chandy, the Devaswom Minister, Mr V.S. Sivakumar, and the DGP, Mr Jacob Punnose, also attended the review meet.