'Scared seeing visuals from lower Thirumuttam, Never witnessed such rush in my life'

PATHANAMTHITTA: Travancore Devaswom Board President K Jayakumar responded about the rush at Sabarimala, calling it the ‘biggest ever’ he has witnessed in his life. The holy hill is now swarmed by lakhs of devotees who chose alternate paths through the forest to reach the Sannidhanam. Many devotees ended up in long queues for over 18 hours before reaching the sanctum sanctorum.

K Jayakumar:

“We have advised devotees who arrived at Pamba not to climb the hills due to the rush. About twenty queue complexes have been prepared from Marakkoottam to Saramkuthi. However, the purpose of these has not been implemented. It is not the police's fault. The police say that people are not entering the queue complexes. This was prepared earlier as part of the master plan. Arrangements have been made to provide water and biscuits to those sitting here. This will be implemented today or tomorrow. Steps will be taken to make the devotees sit in the queue complex.

Seven additional spots will be set up in Nilakkal today for spot booking. There are four in Pamba. Even I got scared after seeing the rush at Lower Thirumuttam. Instructions have been given to allow devotees to climb the 18 steps slowly. Arrangements have been made to provide all devotees with water. 200 people are being brought from Tamil Nadu to ensure the toilets remain clean. Most of the issues that have been noticed are being resolved. Presently, Pamba is clogged and is unhygienic. We will take measures to clean it soon.”