Water Sabotage on Attukal Pongala – Blame game continued, RSS Steps in and acted on time

Pipe burst on Pongala eve, there’s more than meets the eye , Water supply remains disrupted on Pongala day, RSS steps in.

Thiruvananthapuram(Kerala):Thiruvananthapuram city at the eve of world renowned Attukal pongala witnessed a huge sabotage on main water pipeline. While political parties immediately got involved in blame games to take political mileage, timely action by RSS Mahanagar team and Vibhag team made available adequate water by arranging 500 lorries with 2000 volunters!

 The allegation, that a section of politicians and those in government ‘destined’ to rule us by default are hell-bent on sabotaging our age old customs, festivals and faith, is nothing new. Many Hindu organizations have been making this contention over a period of time.

The shoddy manner in which the temples are run by government sponsored bodies in the state, diversion of temple funds for things that are not even remotely connected to Hindu religion, Looting of temple funds by Devaswom staff, raising the Mullaperiyar bogey without fail, during Sabarimala pilgrimage season- all have again and again confirmed this allegation.

Now Attukal Pongala seems to be the latest casualty. Last year it was a court case slapped against 1000 unsuspected women devotees for ‘misuse’ of public place. This year, the failure to remove accumulated garbage was followed by unexpected pipe burst and disruption of water supply to the city on a most important day. Attukal or Sabarimala, the effort seems to create maximum discomfort to devotees and possibly dissuade them from coming next year.

Volunteers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have made arrangements to ensure water supply at 50 major points in the city during Pongala, an intimation by RSS Seva Vibhag said onTuesday. The Seva Vibhag of the RSS has also set up helplines to ensure water supply to the needy. ( 0471-2451492, 2461575,9447340234).

The service is reportedly a huge relief to lakhs of women devotees who have converged in the city to take part in the festival. Though Chief Minisiter Oommen Chandy had promised on Monday evening that the government would make alternate arrangements, the efforts seem to have yielded little results as big tanker lorries arranged by Water authority could not move freely in the city as all the roads have been occupied by the devotees since the previous evening- a factor that the authorities clearly overlooked.

                    Kummanam Rajasekharan,General Secretary, Hindu Aikya Vedi said-
In the context of the statement of Chief Minister, Kerala made that sabotage cannot be ruled out in the break up of water pipe line at Thiruvananthapuram at the time of the Attukal Ponkala, its is necessary to consider the event as an extremist act and to bring out the truth the enquiry need to be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Meanwhile many organizations have demanded a detailed enquiry into the alleged bid to disrupt water supply on a most important festival day that the state capital observes every year. Government has set up a four member team headed by former chief secretary K Jayakumar to probe into the mishap.

     As reported earlier, Thiruvananthapuram is in the grip of major crisis since last evening with the main supply line of Kerala Water Authority carrying water from the Aruvikkara reservoir to the city burst at four places. The incident that occurred with only hours remaining for Pongala festival, is suspected by many as a bid to sabotage the festival. Water supply to most parts of the city stopped since the early hours of Wednesday. The pipe burst took place at four places–Aruvikkara, Karakulam, Vazhayila and Enikkara simultaneously, raising suspicion of sabotage. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, briefing newsmen about the alternate arrangements made, also did not rule out the possibility of sabotage. According to unconfirmed reports, someone shut the safety valve in the supply line, which led to pressure being build up in the pipe, leading to the incident.

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