Amid row, minister K.J. Alphons to visit Sabarimala

Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister of IT and tourism K.J. Alphons will on Monday visit the temple town of Sabarimala to study the facilities meant for devotees.

Alphons told journalists he would reach the Pamba base camp by 9am.

“I visited the temple town two months ago and found out that it was in a pretty bad shape due to the floods. I had suggested that a lot of things had to be done to make it fit for a smooth pilgrimage,” he said.

He said he had come to know that the facilities were not up to the mark.

The bureaucrat-turned-politician’s visit comes at a time when the Kerala unit of the BJP observed Sunday as a protest day by blocking highways across the state following the arrest and remand of its senior leader K. Surendran.

On Saturday night, following a scuffle with the police after he tried to break the police cordon in a bid to go to the Sabarimala temple, he was taken into custody at the Nilackal camp.

After keeping him at the Chittar police station overnight, on Sunday morning Surendran was produced before a magistrate near here who remanded him to 14 days judicial custody.

On Saturday, the police arrested Hindu Iykavedi President and senior BJP leader K.P. Sasikala.

She was detained while proceeding towards the Ayyappa shrine. She was produced before a local court and got bail.

Alphons said the arrest was “totally unwarranted and undemocratic”.

“The Kerala government should show restraint in handling the Sabarimala issue and it should not be forgotten that a government is elected only for five years and not for a life time,” he noted in his Facebook page.

Meanwhile, BJP leader V. Murlaeedharan said that though he had been invited to the inauguration of the annual Kerala Union of Working Journalists meet at Kozhikode on Monday, he will not take part as it would be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.