With less than 24 hours left for the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala to open for the annual Niraputhari festival, the Travancore Devaswom Board officials on Tuesday braved the heavy rains to complete the arrangements for the devotees.
With the Pampa remaining turbulent, a high-level meeting convened by District Collector Divya S. Iyer here on Tuesday decided to ban the pilgrims from entering the river at Pampa-Triveni and in other bathing ghats.
The Collector, as the chairperson of the District Disaster Management Authority, also chaired a meeting to review the arrangements for the festival in the wake of the orange alert that was sounded for the district on August 2, 3 and 4.
