The district administration has banned the chariot movements and the convergence of chariots as part of the Kalpathy festival to be held on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
It has also banned opening of any new shops or allowing street vendors, and mass food distribution during the festival. The responsibility of restricting the crowds below the permitted number of 200 will be that of the organisers.
The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) reviewed the situation in the light of a Government order permitting the conduct of the festival with 200 people in the open and 100 people inside the temple.
The DDMA evaluated that it was practically impossible to conduct the festival by taking out the deities in chariots and by restricting the crowds to 200 as per an action plan submitted by the organisers.
The organisers had asked the district administration to restrict the crowds for the festival. However, an order issued by District Collector Mrunmai Joshi on Tuesday said Kalpathy festival would not be considered as that of the people of Kalpathy villages, but devotees from other Tamil Brahmin villages and neighbouring districts would throng the narrow lanes of Kalpathy.
The DDMA shifted the responsibility of crowd controlling to the organisers, and warned that punitive action would be initiated against them under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 and the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance of 2020 if the conditions were violated.
The people of Kalpathy had prepared the chariots for taking the deities of Kalpathy Sri Visalakshi Sametha Sri Viswanatha Swami Temple, Old Kalpathy Sri Lakshmi Narayana Perumal Temple, Chathapuram Prasanna Mahaganapathi Temple, and New Kalpathy Manthakkara Mahaganapathi Temple along the villages on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Thousands of people used to witness the auspicious movements of giant wooden chariots being pulled by the people with the deities in them. The DDMA observed that it would be impossible for the devotees to pull the chariots by maintaining social distancing and by restricting the total number to 200.
