Thiruvananthapuram, Saturday, October 22, 2011: A meeting of temple affairs ministers of Southern State has been convened in Kottayam on October 23 to discuss preparations for the two-month-long pilgrim season of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, starting from mid-November.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has convened the meeting, will brief the ministers concerned about arrangements already done and elicit their views on improving the facilities, official sources said.

Devotees from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry account for a vast majority of over 30 million pigrims visitng the shrine every year.

The ministerial meet also assumes significance in view of the stampede tragedy at Pulmedu near Sabarimala which claimed 102 lives last year.

The ministers and officials would focus on key issues like crowd management, parking of vehicles, keeping the ecologically-sensitive environs of the area pollution free and basic needs of pilgrims like clean drinking water and medical aid, an official of Trvancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the temple, said.

Besides deploying large contingents of state police, special commandos, disaster mangement personnel and auxiliary forces, the state would also seek the services of forces from the neighbouring states since the ”Mandala” and ”Makaravilakku” pilgrimage of the hill shrine is mega inter-state event.

(News agency)