Temple gears up for Mandalam season

Thiruvananthapuram: State police have made elaborate security arrangements for the upcoming pilgrimage season at Sabarimala , without waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on review petitions.

As many as 10,017 policemen will provide security in phases that will be coordinated by chief police coordinator and ADGP (law and order) Sheikh Darvesh Sahib.

He will be assisted by joint chief coordinators IG (south zone) Balram Kumar Upadhyaya and Thiruvananthapuram commissioner MR Ajith Kumar. They will be assisted by DIG (armed police battalion) P Prakash, DIG (Ernakulam) K Mahesh Kumar and DIG (Thiruvananthapuram) K Sanjay Kumar Gurudin.

Sabarimala has been divided into Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilackal and Erumely, of which the first four places will have five-phased security while Erumely will witness a four-phase security.

The first phase will begin from November 15 and end on November 30, during which AIG (headquarters) Rahul R Nair will be the controller at Sannidhanam. SP (crimes) Kottayam, K M Sabu Mathew, SP (crimes) Thrissur Sudarshanan and additional deputy commissioner (Kozhikode) P Wahid will be the police controllers at Pamba, Nilackal and Erumely, respectively.

In the second phase from November 30 to December 14, SP (crimes) Kannur A Srinivas will be the controller at Sannidhanam. Commandant (KAP-IV battalion) Navneet Sharma, SP (crimes) N Abdul Rasheed and additional commissioner (Thrissur city) M C Devasya will be the controllers at Pamba, Nilackal and Erumely, respectively.

In the third phase from December 14 to December 29, DCP (Thiruvananthapuram city) R Adithya will be the controller at Sannidhanam. Kerala Police Academy assistant director Reji Jacob, commandant (KAP-III battalion) R Elango, additional SP (Thiruvananthapuram rural) M Iqbal will be controllers at Pamba, Nilackal and Erumely respectively.

In the fourth phase from December 29 to January 16, AIG (headquarters) Sujith Das and commandant (state armed police) KS Vimal will be the controllers at Sannidhanam. SP (telecommunications) H Manjunath, SP (special cell) V Ajith and additional SP (Alappuzha) B Krishna Kumar will be controllers at Pamba, Nilackal and Erumely respectively.

The final phase, termed auxiliary phase, principal (police training college) B Vijayan, SP (crimes) Shaji Sugunan and SP (traffic south zone) KL John Kutty will be controllers at Sannidhanam, Pamba and Nilackal respectively.

Also, ASPs serving in sub-divisions and other units - including Vaibhav Saxena, Vivek Kumar, Aravind Sukumar, D Shilpa, R Vishwanath, Hemalatha, Aishwarya Dongre and Ankit Ashokan -have been appointed as additional police controllers.