Kerala   

TDB stalemate likely to affect festivals at Sabarimala temple

PATHANAMTHITTA: Administrative stalemate in the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is likely to affect the conduct of the annual festival and the Vishu festival at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

TDB affairs are once again in a state of turmoil, posing problems even to the day-to-day affairs of certain temples attached to it. With the cold war between the board president and the members evolving into a war of words, the situation has taken a turn for the worse.

The 10-day annual festival at Sabarimala begins on March 12 and the Vishu festival on April 1. Talking to The Hindu, many senior board officials confided their helplessness in taking decisions at the appropriate time and making arrangements for the smooth conduct of the festival.

The holy hillock is facing acute water scarcity. With the onset of summer, Kunnar Dam, which supplies water to the Sannidhanam, has turned dry. The TDB is left with no option but to pump water from the Pampa on the foothills to the storage tank at Saramkuthi and from there to the Sannidhanam.

But, the Pampa has turned almost dry at the foothills necessitating release of water from the reservoirs of the Kerala State Electricity Board.

Though there were demands to release water to raise the water level in the Pampa bathing ghats, no official decision has been taken allegedly owing to lack of initiative from the TDB.

The KSEB too expressed concern over releasing water at a time when the State was on the brink of a power crisis. TDB officials also expressed doubts about supplying water to the accommodation centres at the Sannidhanam.

However, they said water scarcity was unlikely to affect the needs of the temple as certain quantity of water had been stored in a separate tank.

Meanwhile, repair work at the ‘arattu-kadavu’ in the Pampa is almost over and the work on the ‘Utsavabali pandal’ is progressing at the Sannidhanam.

Scarcity of water also poses problems in ‘prasadom’ preparation.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Police reinforcements to stay in Thalassery
‘My tree’ for colleges
TDB stalemate likely to hit festivals
Shortage of fertilizers
Light of life
Memorial for poet to come up
Tiger census
Up in arms
Remembering a musician
Janata Dal (Secular) flays attack
Employees’ union hails steps to save KSRTC
Diverse views on Basel missionaries’ work
Up in arms over office attack
In memory of an artiste
Mafia groups controlling TDB, says Sudhakaran
Memorial meet
Call to evolve local strategies
TDB stalemate likely to affect festivals at Sabarimala temple
Against attack
New, permanent Bench needed

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu