Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 2
With the new two-month-long Sabarimala temple season set to commence in mid-November, a review meeting, chaired by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Saturday decided to provide free insurance life coverage to all pilgrims to the venerated hilltop shrine.
Under this new scheme, the kin of any pilgrim who passes away during the pilgrimage will get a sum of Rs 5 lakh and the authorities will also make arrangements for conveying the mortal remains to the pilgrim's hometown.
The Travancore Devasom Board, which manages all temples under their control in the southern districts of the state, will be paying the insurance premium for this unique insurance coverage scheme.
This time, the two-month-long season opens on November 16 and will go on until the last week of December when it closes for a brief while and then reopen for pilgrims till early in the third week of January.
At the meeting, it was also decided to deploy a record close to 14,000 police officials who, along with volunteers, will be on security duty and give a helping hand to the pilgrims.
Several Ministers and various departmental heads attended the meeting as this is one pilgrim venue where there has to be close monitoring of various agencies of the state government.
The parking facility for pilgrims has now been increased to 10,000 parking slots besides there will be rate cards in various south Indian languages on display at all the restaurants in and around the temple town.
The healthcare facilities in and around the temple town will also have state-of-the-art facilities for the pilgrims.
State Devasom Minister V.N. Vasavan said not a single pilgrim will have to return without having a darshan.
"The virtual queue booking has started... Besides, there will be 10,000 daily tickets for darshan for those who do not book online. There will be a smooth pilgrimage and for that, all things are getting ready," he said.
Situated on the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level, Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in the Pathanamthitta district, which is around 100 km from the state capital.
The temple, which bars the entry of women who have attained puberty, is accessible only on foot from the Pamba river. As per practice, before setting off to the holy shrine, a pilgrim normally undertakes an intense 41-day penance where he does not wear footwear, wears a black dhoti, and sticks to strict vegetarian food.
Every pilgrim carries 'lrumudi', a prayer kit which contains coconuts which are broken just before climbing the 18 steps, on his head during the pilgrimage and without it, no one is allowed to step onto the holy 18 steps at the 'Sannidhanam'.