Devotees throng Sabarimala temple.
Credit: Special arrangement
Thiruvananthapuram: The heavy influx of pilgrims to Sabarimala Ayyappa temple led to a near stampede situation on Tuesday.
Pilgrims were forced to wait in queue even for more than ten hours for darshan. Many had even returned without darshan.
After waiting for hours many pilgrims jumped the barricades at the 'Nada pandal' (queue complex) near the temple and rushed towards the 'Pathinettam padi' (18 holy steps). This led to a near stampede situation near the holy steps at noon. The police personnel were struggling to manage the influx of pilgrims near the 'holy steps'. Many children and elderly persons suffered discomfort owing to the commotion.
Additional director general of police S Sreejith, who is in charge of the Sabarimala security arrangements, rushed to the spot and made arrangements to manage the crowd. The closing time of the temple was also extended by one hour from 1 pm to 2 pm.
He said that even as the maximum pilgrims allowed daily through virtual queue booking is 70,000 and through spot booking is 20,000, more pilgrims reached the temple during the day. Many pilgrims were also not following the time allotted to them in the virtual queue. These were causing the heavy rush.
Travancore Devaswom Board president K Jayakumar said that the maximum number of pilgrims during a day would be strictly restricted to one lakh and pilgrims would be allowed only in the time slots allowed to them. In order to manage the crowd at Sabarimala, spot booking facilities would be set up in other halting places for pilgrims.
The temple has been witnessing huge rush in the initial days of the pilgrimage itself. According to an official statement, on November 16, the day on which the temple opened, 53,278 pilgrims visited and on November 17 as many as 98,915 pilgrims visited. Till 12 noon today 44,401 pilgrims visited.
Meanwhile, there were widespread criticisms about inadequate arrangements and facilities. Many pilgrims were complaining that they were not getting food or water.
While the opposition Congress as well as the BJP strongly criticized the left-front government for the alleged lapses in making arrangements for pilgrims at Sabarimala, government sources were maintaining that since the model code of conduct is in place due to the local body elections ministers had limitations in directly reveiwing arrangements for pilgrims. Opposition leader V D Satheesan said that since the state government failed in making arrangements, the High Court should intervene to ensure a smooth pilgrimage.