High-level meeting on January 31

SABARIMALA:  Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar has said that a high-level meeting on Sabarimala will be held at Thiruvananthapuram on January 31 to review the on-going mandalam-Makaravilakku season and  discuss the preparations for the next pilgrimage season.Addressing a news conference at Sannidhanam Devaswom Guest House on Sunday, Sivakumar said that the meeting would take crucial decision on the projects to be taken up for the coming pilgrimage season.The important projects under the master plan,  including the two-storeyed Valiyanadapandal, new sewage treatment plant at Sannidhanam  with a capacity of five million litres per day capacity, augmentation of the Pampa sewage treatment plant capacity from 3.5 million litres to five million litres per day, augmentation of water storage capacity of Kunnar  dam,  new prasadam manufacturing and sale building complex,  two new queue complexes, completion of the existing queue complexes with full-fledged facilities, construction of nadapandal  between Marakoottam and Valiyanadapandal, would be taken up during the next pilgrimage season. Sivakumar said that measures would be taken to ensure a safe and secure pilgrimage season during the coming pilgrimage season. On the effect of Mullaperiyar dam issue, Sivakumar said that the State Government had taken measures to ensure the safety and security of the pilgrims from Tamil Nadu.On allowing tribal community members to perform ritual at Ponnambalamedu, he said  that matters concerned with temple rituals would be decided by the Travancore Devaswom Board and the thantri .With regard to permission for KSRTC buses for Uppupara,  the minister said that the government would take necessary measures to ply buses during the next season. Additional Chief Secretary K Jayakumar, Travancore Devaswom Board president M Rajagopalan Nair,  members K Sicily and K V Padmanabhan,  ADGP Chandrasekharan and Devaswom chief engineer Ravikumar were present at the conference.