The Kerala police said that they are not sure about the identities of the 550 women registered for the Sabarimala Darshan. The website does not ask for proof of identity.
Thiruvanantpuram| Ahead of the opening of the Sabarimala temple gates for two months, a total of 550 women between the age group of 10 to 50 have registered for darshan online. According to the Kerala Police, the women have registered for the darshan through the online booking facility.
The Sabarimala temple opens for the ‘mandalam-makaravilakku’ pilgrimage season every year. The pilgrimage will begin next week and go on for two months. The temple gates would be thrown open for devotees for the period. Kerala Police runs a ‘virtual queue’ system on the lines of Tirupati Temple every year during the festival. The online booking enables the devotees to select the date and time of their choice for the darshan. Since the Sabarimala Temple draws a huge crowd, the system was introduced a few years ago for better crowd management.
Nearly, 3.5 lakh people have registered for the Sabarimala darshan using the virtual queue facility. As many as 40,000 of them have booked bus tickets of KSRTC from Nilakkal to Pamba which are the two base camps of the Sabarimala shrine.
The Kerala police said that they are not sure about the identities of the 550 women registered for the Darshan. The website does not ask for proof of identity. Thus, the police could not ascertain their real identity.
For the last two times when the temple gates were opened, the hill shrine campus witnessed a violent protest by devotees as women tried to enter the temple. Supreme Court earlier this year lifted a ban on the entry of women between the 10-51 age group in Sabarimala. On November 13, the Supreme Court will be hearing the review petition on the matter.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
