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Thiruvananthapuram: The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday charged the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government with sabotaging the development of land around the famed Sabarimala temple for improving facilities to pilgrims. The UDF cancelled the order to transfer revenue land in lieu of forest land to be released by the Centre for the development of the region. BJP state President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said the government had cancelled its order dated September 7, 2005 for transferring 313.34 acres of revenue land at Kambakkallu to the Forest Department for compensatory afforestation against the forest land released to the Travancore Devaswom Board for implementation of the Sabarimala Masterplan.
Part of the masterplan is to construct a 50-compartment, self-contained queue complex on the Sabarimala trekking path as part of a smooth and effective crowd control mechanism. He said the land transfer was a legal pre-condition for diversion of forest land. The Centre will be forced to withdraw its sanction to release forest land as the Revenue Department had decided to keep the revenue land, he said. Pillai said the government was out to help mafias operating in the region. The order cancelling the transfer of land was issued on January 27, 2006. "A judicial inquiry should be ordered to probe the circumstances behind the dubious decision," he said.
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