TDB to meet Friday to find amicable solution to Sabarimala row

PAMBA: Amid mounting protest in Kerala against the entry of women of menstrual age into Sabarimala temple, the Travancore Devaswom Board will meet on Friday in Thiruvananthapuram to find an amicable solution to the row.

Ahead of the meeting, the TDB, which administers the hill shrine, Thursday said it was ready for any sort of compromise to end the stand-off.

TDB president A Padmakumar said the board has always taken a stand that it was ready for any sort of compromise to end the protest and bring normalcy.

"We are not for any politics over the issue," he told reporters here.

Seeking to reach out to devotees opposing entry of women of all age groups, he asked if the protests would end if the TDB files a review plea in the Supreme Court against its verdict.

The meeting is being held after consensuseluded a crucial meeting of stakeholders called by the board last week to resolve the vexed issue of entry of women of all age groups into the shrine in the wake of the apex court judgment.

However, TDB, which manages over 1,200 temples in the state, including the Lord Ayyappa Temple, had said talks with the stakeholders would continue to find a solution.

Last week's meeting attended by various stakeholders of the shrine, including temple tantri (head priest), the Pandalam royal family, 'Ayyappa Seva Samajam' and 'Yoga Kshema Sabha', had failed to arrive at an agreement as the TDB stuck to its stand of not going for a review plea.

Representatives of the Pandalam royal family had walked out as TDB refused to concede their demand to take a decision on filing the review plea Tuesday itself.

However, the TDB president had said the meeting was not a "failure" and the board wanted to settle the issue and go ahead with the talks with the people concerned again.

The Sabarimala temple, located on the mountain ranges of the ecologically fragile Western Ghats, opened yesterday for the first time after the recent apex court order, allowing entry of women of all age groups there.

The shrine will close on October 22 after the five-day monthly puja during the Malayalam month of Thulam.