Cleanliness is Godliness. A band of Ayyappa devotees in the Kerala Police, headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Vijayan, are all out to preach and practise the message at Sabarimala. It was Mr. Vijayan who launched the Punyam Poonkavanam project during his tenure as Police Special Officer at Sabarimala in 2011. The system involves an hour-long intensive cleaning drive at the Lower Tirumuttom of the Ayyappa temple and surrounding areas from 9 a.m. every day. To begin with, personnel of the Kerala Police and Central forces and other staff on duty launched the project.
The project got wide appreciation from different quarters and every VIP visiting Sabarimala made it a point to take part in the cleaning drive. The temple Tantri (chief priest) and Melsanthi (head priest) participate in the programme on the first day of every pilgrim season. Judges, State and Central Ministers, and celebrities visiting Sabarimala unfailingly take part in the drive.
In recognition of the success of the programme, the Director General of Police appointed Mr. Vijayan as Programme Coordinator and the Kerala High Court made him the Nodal Officer of the project later. The programme turned out to be a morale booster for the nearly 750 Tamil sanitation workers deployed at Sabarimala. “The cleaning drive imparted a sense of collective responsibility among traders and hoteliers,” says Mr. Vijayan.
He said steps were under way to spread the message to keep Sabarimala clean to centres across the country where Ayyappa devotees assemble as part of their annual pilgrimage to the forest shrine.
The Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sanghom (ABASS) and the Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajom (SASS) have extended support to the project.
These two organisations have 5,000-odd units across the country and have already launched the campaign at various pilgrim centres in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telengana. The project was launched at the Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple, Thali temple in Kozhikode, and at the Thiruvambady Devaswom in Thrissur recently.
