Sabarimala probe report: blame game begins

Agencies

New Delhi, 20 January 2011: Kerala DGP Jacob Punnose and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) submitted reports on Sabarimala stampede tragedy that claimed lives of 102 pilgrims in the Kerala high court on Thursday.The police report says that they did their best despite constraints as they did not have permission to make specific policing arrangements because the area falls under a tiger reserve.

 

The police however have admitted that there were not enough policemen to handle the crowd. There are a total of 279 policemen in the entire Pullumedu area. The report submitted by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has blamed the police and the forest department for the stampede.

 

The forest department report on the other hand has points fingers at the Kerala police saying there were only 50 policemen at the spot. Forest department sources said earlier that total neglect of its repeated warnings against unregulated entry of vehicles into the narrow hill route at Pullumedu was a vital factor for the tragedy.

 

The department had said it had been under pressure from state agencies, the temple board, lobby of vehicle operators and local politicians to allow traffic into the sensitive route at Pullumedu, closed a few years ago. The Kerala high court asked the Kerala govt, "How did more than one lakh people and 2000 vehicles reach the forest area?"

 

Interestingly, the high court has asked the temple board to explain Makara Jyothi, believed to be a celestial light that flickers thrice in the sky on Makara Sankranti. The court wants to know if Makaravilakku and Makara Jyothi are man-made phenomena.

 

"I have spoken to the authorities. It’s disappointing to see a blame game between the police and the board. We have to take immediate action and act fast," said Rahul Eshwar, spokesperson, Devaswom board.

 

Earlier, expressing displeasure over neglect of its warnings on the safety of Sabarimala pilgrims, the bench had on Monday rapped the state government and directed police, forest department and TDB officials to file reports on the tragedy by January 20.

 

The bench had recalled that it had asked the authorities earlier this month to regulate the flow of pilgrims to avoid disasters like the stampede. It had observed that there had been lack of co-ordination among various departments involved in the conduct of the festival at Sabarimala.