Special darshan for VIPs at Sabarimala should be stopped: CM

Pamba, Aug 18 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayantoday suggested that the practice of providing special darshanfor VIPs in the hill temple of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimalashould be done away with and that the Tirupati temple modelqueue system for pilgrims needs to be introduced. The Chief Minister, who held a review meeting of variousfacilities at the temple prior to the start of pilgrim season,also wanted the shrine, which sees a heavy rush of pilgrimsevery year, to be kept open on all days. He also enquired if Tirupati model darshan tickets of Rs1,000 and Rs 250 could be introduced for Sabarimala pilgrims. Prayar Gopalakrishnan, President of Travancore DevaswomBoard, which manages the world famous shrine, however turneddown the three suggestions of the Chief Minister at themeeting, which also saw heated exchanges between both of them. "The temple cannot be opened on all days as it followscertain rituals and customs," Gopalakrishnan said. There are no separate queue for VIPs, he said adding onlythose who offer poojas for over Rs 500 are allowed to havedarshan after standing in a special queue. The Tirupati model tickets also cannot be introduced asit would amount to discriminating devotees, he said. The TDB president said only women of a particular agegroup are not allowed inside the temple. The Chief Minister also suggested that a rope way andairport for pilgrims who come from far off states need to beconsidered. "We need to think of an airport as people from differentstates are coming", he said. Vijayan said the parking facilities are not enough atPamba and suggested a multi-level parking facility. State ministers – K K Shylaja, Kadakkampally Surendran, KRaju, A K Saseendran and K T Jaleel besides TDB officials andmembers from various departments participated in the meeting.PTI UD APRKUNMVV