Seva Bharati, an RSS-inspired organisation, immersed itself in a cleaning yajna on February 28 ahead of the Pongala pilgrimage in the capital city of Tiruvananthapuram. Around five thousand volunteers, including 2000 women, undertook the mission to clean the streets to facilitate the Pongala ritual scheduled for March 3. According to rough estimates, more than 25 lakh women are expected to arrive from across the world to offer Attukal Pongala, widely known as women’s Sabarimala.
Sevabharati has been shouldering the cleaning work prior to and after Pongala for the last several decades. They provide drinking water, fuel for cooking Pongala Payasam, and other required paraphernalia for the women pilgrims.
This time, Sevabharati volunteers carried out the cleaning work on February 28 from 7 pm to 9.30 pm at 100 centres. They cleaned the areas belonging to 25 corporation wards around the Attukal Devi Temple. Simultaneously, they distributed drinking water and food to pilgrims who visit the temple five to six days prior to the mega festival.
The Cleaning Yajna was inaugurated by BJP leader and City Mayor V.V. Rajesh. Deputy Mayor Asha Nath, Sevabharati State Vice President D. Vijayan, and senior RSS functionaries led the operations. 5000 Sevabharati workers are actively participating in seva activities on March 3, the day of Pongala.
During the Pongala festival of 2013, the drinking water supply was totally disrupted. At that time, K. Chandrika of the CPM-led Left Democratic Front was the City Mayor. Then thousands of Sevabharati workers entered the field and supplied water. They deployed several vehicles and water tankers for the operations and ensured that the pilgrimage went on uninterrupted. The pilgrims and ordinary people across the state praised Sevabharati workers for their selfless samaj seva.
This year, pilgrims and right-thinking people are anxious and worried about the malicious and revengeful attitude of the Left officials of the Kerala Water Authority. Water scarcity was allegedly artificially created in several parts of the city prior to Pongala. It started three to four days earlier. The BJP-led city administration arranged more than 200 water tankers to address the water scarcity. The corporation team, led by Mayor V.V. Rajesh, has deployed water tankers in 160 centres for the pilgrims. Thousands of Sevabharati workers are all set to distribute drinking water across the entire city if the situation warrants it.
Reports from Tiruvananthapuram suggest that Left union employees of the Kerala Water Authority created artificial water scarcity for two reasons: first, to disrupt a Hindu pilgrimage programme; second, to spread false propaganda that everything is in a mess after the BJP took over the corporation administration.
