Sabarimala website has not been updated

MALAPPURAM: Want to check details of the festival calendar for Sabarimala temple at the Travancore Devaswom Board’s website for the same? Be forewarned before you believe what you see.

The TDB’s carelessness, even callous neglect, in updating data furnished on its mostvisited website is appalling to those surfing in the net for information on Lord Ayyappa’s abode and the special rituals there during the season.

But trust the website-managers to be unswerving in their devotion to their masters.

Clour photographs of Devaswom Minister G Sudhakaran and the other three board members, including the president, have been updated with due care on the home page of the website www.travancoredevaswom.org. Those of you who click the details on the hyperlink ‘festival calendar’ on the home page, however, will have not a whole lot to look forward to. You will be provided the details, the minutest of them, of the opening and closing of Sabarimala Temple during, hold your breath, 2005-2006.

The entire page has not been updated after the hoisting of the schedule in 2005. When clicked for the details of Devaswom Department or Devaswom Divisions or Groups a blank window will pop up as a question mark apparently to confound the already confused visitor. The details about temples adjacent to Sabarimala and its surroundings are also inadequate. The comprehensive web offers only the total number of major, minor, pretty and PD temples without mentioning even a single name or place.

Contents uploaded under the category of News also remain blank. While the hyperlinks, ‘Festival’ and ‘Tender’, remain fully blank, the ‘General’ category is crawling with stale news items dating back to circa 2006.

TDB, which earns a huge revenue from Sabarimala has not even shown interest in maintaining the list of contacts properly updated in the web.

The name, designation and contact numbers of the various devaswom departments have not yet been entered. Only the numbers of assistant devaswom commissioners, who head various groups, are shown.

And‘Important Numbers’ are mostly of those who have already gone out of service! Lacking most-sought-after information like short-stay facilities, religious offerings and aravana distribution, the site has not even incorporated the option to clarify the doubts of pilgrims. Devaswom Minister Sudhakaran in his recent statements had declared that the government was keen on monitoring each step required for facilitating the pilgrimage to Sabarimala. But he also doesn’t seem to count the Net-surfers among Lord Ayappa’s devotees.

It is now learnt that a private company has taken steps to launch a website to provide more authentic details on Sabarimala.

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