Sabarimala: Give us more time to enforce order, says temple body to SC

NEW DELHI/ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Board on Monday moved the SC asking for more time to implement its September 28 order that lifted the ban on women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple. The board cited the inability to provide facilities to women pilgrims as a reason in its petition.

NEW DELHI/ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Monday moved the Supreme Court asking for more time to implement its September 28 order that lifted a decades-old ban on women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple.

The board, a statutory body under the Kerala government that runs the hilltop shrine, cited the inability to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure to women pilgrims and violence that broke out in the state after the local government attempted to follow the verdict as the two main reasons in its petition.

The TDB said unprecedented security arrangements by the government, which has said it will implement the SC order despite protests by devotees and political outfits, have not been able to discourage agitators from threatening and stopping women from worshipping at the temple.

“Acts of hooliganism are in public domain,” the board said. It also admitted to facing “practical difficulties” in implementing the

THE TRAVANCORE DEVASWOM BOARD SAID IT NEEDS TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE FACILITIES TO WOMEN VISITING THE TEMPLE

judgment. To ensure the well being and security of women pilgrims, the board said, it plans to construct restrooms and washrooms at Sabarimala and the base camps in Pamba and Nilakkal.

The state government deployed thousands of police personnel to provide security to women trekking to the hilltop temple, but violent protesters have turned them away in several instances since the SC order.

Women journalists travelling to report from the spot were also threatened.

The Kerala high court said on Monday police excess can’t be permitted in the guise of implementing the Supreme Court verdict, even as Union minister KJ Alphons, who visited the Sabarimala temple, accused the state government of turning the pilgrim spot into a war zone.

The location where the temple is located witnessed a scuffle between policemen and protestors on Sunday night after which 69 pilgrims were arrested for violating prohibitory orders.

The high court, while hearing a petition on preparations at the temple, observed that the lack of basic facilities and transport posed difficulties to pilgrims. “Why do you need 15,000 policemen in Sabarimala? Police camp in barracks not in ‘nada pandal’, which is a resting place of devotees,” observed the court.

The next hearing on the petition will be held on November 24.

In the Supreme Court, the TDB said that though it had asked for more forest land near the temple to provide additional facilities to pilgrims, they couldn’t proceed until objections of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which gives a report to the apex court on any construction activity proposed in a forest region, are adjudicated by the SC.

Till such facilities are not provided, the board is not in a position to provide security to the women devotees, the board said.