Protest brewing against restrictions on number of pilgrims at Kerala's Sabarimala temple

Thiruvananthapuram: A recent decision of the Kerala government to restrict the daily number of pilgrims at the Sabarimala Ayyappan temple to 80,000 and to allow darshan only through online virtual queue booking facility during the two-month long pilgrimage beginning from next month have triggered protests.

Various forums are strongly opposing the fresh regulations, while some forums are also planning to launch a stir demanding the government to revoke the decisions.

Online booking facilities need not be accessible to all sections of devotees visiting the hill shrine from across the country. The fresh restriction could also lead to a situation where devotees coming down from distant places being denied darshan, they cite.

Chaos caused by poor crowd control during the last pilgrimage was cited as a reason for imposing the fresh restrictions on the number of pilgrims. The daily number of pilgrims had even crossed one lakh mark on various occasions during the previous years.

State devaswom minister V N Vasavan said that the fresh restrictions on the number of pilgrims were imposed in view of the heavy rush during the previous years. He also said that systems would be put in place to ensure that all devotees could have darshan at the temple.

Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajam (SASS) state president Akeeraman Kalidasan said that unless the government revoked such wrong decision over Sabarimala, SASS and other similar outfits would jointly launch a stir.

The decision to introduce an optional insurance scheme for Rs. 10 per pilgrim who books on the virtual queue system is also coming under criticism.

TDB sources point out that the crowd could be managed by enabling entry of up to 90 pilgrims per minute through the 18-holy steps of the temple. It could be achieved by deploying experienced police personnel.

Though there were suggestions to consider keeping the temple open for more time, sources point out that since the temple is already kept open for 17 hours a day further extension of it could lead to practical difficulties.