Court directive to ensure pilgrim safety

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State government to ensure that disaster management measures were put in place at Sabarimala and prompt action taken in the event of any eventuality.



The Bench comprising Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice C.T. Ravikumar also directed the State government, Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), and other statutory authorities to take proper safety measures at Sabarimala and to ensure that quality food and drinking water were made available to the pilgrims. The Kerala State Electricity Board and the Fire Force should also do the needful.

The court also ordered that the police officer in charge of Sabarimala should ensure that the force was effectively deployed to manage the crowds.

The court made it clear that the officers concerned would be held responsible in the event of failure to avert any disaster.

Acting on a report filed by Sabarimala Special Commissioner S. Jagadeesh, the court ordered that the food testing laboratories temporarily set up at the Sannidhanam and Pampa for testing jaggery and other ingredients used for ‘appam' and ‘aravana' should be made permanent. The court made it clear that the jaggery cleared by the laboratory alone should be utilised for making aravana.

In his report, the Commissioner pointed out that 28,000 containers of aravana had burst and its contents had oozed out. He had sent some of the containers to the food testing laboratories at Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta through the Food Safety Commissioner. As per the laboratory reports, the containers burst due to the low sugar content in the aravana.

The report said that the sugar content (jaggery) was found to be less than 60 per cent. It said that if the sugar content was maintained above 60 per cent in the aravana, it would not have fermented since the sugar would have acted as a natural preservative. The Food Safety Commissioner had set up the temporary laboratories at Sabarimala on his request.

Besides, the required quantity of jaggerry should be strictly used.

As for other foods supplied as part of the contract with the Travancore Devaswom Board, if any food article found was to be not in conformity with the standard prescribed by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, it should be immediately reported to the local authorities, which, in turn, should take appropriate action.

The Bench directed that the Board should ensure that no contaminated or substandard prasadams were supplied to the pilgrims. The court asked the Board to provide sufficient infrastructure facilities for setting up food testing laboratories.

Source:The Hindu