Government against Sabarimala development: Raman Nair

The government and the forest department are impeding the development of Sabarimala as certain lobby in the government and the forest department for their vested interests are creating hurdles in providing facilities to millions of devotees coming to the forest Shrine, Mr G Raman Nair, President, Travancore Devaswom Board alleged.

Inaugurating the Omalloor Hindu Matha Maha Sammelan, near Pathanamthitta, Mr Nair exhorted the Hindus to unite and fight against such moves.

He said that when the TDB came forward to implement the Pampa Action Plan under the National River Conservation programme that was also thwarted by these lobby.

The daily poojas and the running of 1,208 temples under the Board are done with the revenue from the Sabarimala shrine and hence any drop in the revenue from there would negatively affect the functioning of these temples, he pointed out.

The TDB Member, Mr M B Sreekumar said that the government which had transferred free of cost vast expanse of land in a strategic location in the Kochi city under a single cabinet decision had bargained and collected Rs 8 crore from the Board for transferring the land in Sabarimala for creating facilities for the devotees.

He said that the forest department has been filing cases against the Board and about 28 cases are in the courts.

He alleged that a senior Christian officer in the Periyar Tiger Reserve had even directed the TDB to stop the Sabarimala development projects.