THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal has called upon the State Government and Thiruvananthapuram Corporation authorities to provide facilities to the Ayyappa devotees coming to the capital city to have darshan at Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here. He said both the Government and Corporation authorities were neglecting the hapless devotees coming from distant states. Leading a team of BJP workers who conducted a visit to the Sree Padmanabha swamy temple and Attukal temple premises on a fact-finding mission to understand the problems being faced by the pilgrims, Rajagopal said there was no facility for the devotees to set up ‘virees’. He also said that there was lack of sufficient toilet facilities. The devotees have to pay Rs 5 for using the toilet when the charge fixed for the same is just 50 paise. The waterlogged parking slot is the only place available for the devotees to take rest. Though the rest place of the Attukal temple complex is open to the devotees, no facility had been provided by the government or the Corporation. Though the Corporation had claimed that 50 Kudumbasree workers would be engaged to clean the premises, only 6 of them had been engaged so far. After 8 pm, the devotees were finding it difficult to get drinking water and food. Rajagopal asked the Devaswom Minister to clarify as to how the Rs 10 lakh assistance offered for setting up facilities had been utilised. He said that the efforts of the government and the Corporation to fool the devotees by resorting to blame game will not work. BJP district president Karamana Jayan said that in case the government did not take steps to solve the problems within two days, the BJP would launch a strong agitation against the government and the Corporation. District secretary S Suresh, district vice-president Ponnara A Appu, Radhamma Sasidharan, Athiyannur Sasikumar Chempazhanthi Udayan, Karamana Ajith and others were in the fact-finding team.
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