Thiruvananthapuram, Friday 21 January 2011: The State government would today brief the Kerala High Court about the steps taken to ensure safety of pilgrims at Sabarimala.

The TDB, Forest and police departments had submitted a report, claiming clean and blaming others for the tragedy. All the three reports clearly pointed towards the lack of co-ordination among the various departments.

The court had on Thursday directed the government to convey the decision taken by the cabinet regarding the report filed by the home secretary. The government would be submitting the report by Additional Chief Secretary and chairman of the high power committee for Sabarimala K Jayakumar.

Earlier report

Kerala DGP Jacob Punnose and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) yesterday filed reports before the Kerala high court on the stampede at Pullmedu in Vandiperiyar in idukki district which claimed the lives of 102 Sabarimala pilgrims.

The report was filed before the division bench comprising Justice Thothathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice P.S. Gopinathan. Expressing displeasure over neglect of warnings on the safety of Sabarimala pilgrims, the bench had on Monday pulled up the state government and directed the Police, forest department and board officials to file reports by today.

The bench had on January 5 asked the authorities to regulate the flow of pilgrims to avoid disasters like the stampede and had observed that there had been lack of coordination among various departments involved in conduct of the festival at Sabarimala, which attracts millions of pilgrims during the two-month long season from mid-Novermber.

‘We want to know what had happened. Explain how the mishap occurred’, the judges had said while issuing the direction. The stampede had occurred on January 14 as devotees were returning after witnessing the ‘Makara Jyothi’ (celestial light) at Pullmedu in Vandiperiyar in Idukki district.

(PTI)