Telangana adopts Sabarimala model for Jatara

Sabarimala: There are many takers from Telangana for Sabarimala’s good practices. The Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, the state tribal festival of Telangana, where over  10 million devotes from eight states gather, will implement the Sabarimala- model facilities from the next festival scheduled to be held in January-February 2018.  A five-member team from Jayashankar Bhupalapally district visited Sabarimala and studied  the facilities being provided for the devotees here.

The team will soon submit a detailed report to the district collector. The tribal festival is directly conducted  by the district administration unlike that by the Devaswom Board in Sabarimala.

The team along with the disaster management officials of Kerala visited the waste treatment plants, drinking water and hygiene facilities and  the various systems working for effective crowd control and disaster management.

Mulugu Sub-Collector V.P Gautham, who led the team, told DC that facilities like incinerator and hygiene campaigns would be  implemented  in Medaram village, where the festival takes place.  

“Basically a tribal festival, the Jatara has gone beyond that notion and people from all walks of life and regions are enthusiastically taking part in it.  During our review meeting, there was a suggestion about studying the facilities at Sabarimala and implement those good practices during Jatara.  Based on that, the district collector sent us here,” he said.

“There are a lot of similarities between Sabarimala fest and Jatara. Both happen  in the forest and  narrow roads and deal with huge numbers of devotees. The waste management, general sanitation and disaster management facilities at Sabarimala are excellent. Many of them  can be  replicated at Sammakka Saralamma Jatara for a  trouble-free festival,” he added.

The team also visited Pampa and Nilackal and inspected the facilities arranged for devotees, including parking.