Heavy rush at Sabarimala

SABARIMALA: Heavy rush of pilgrims was witnessed for darsan of Lord Ayyappa on Tuesday. The long queue of pilgrims extended beyond Marakkoottam for the first time during the on-going season. The pilgrims in the jam-packed queues on the trekking path were forced to wait for seven hours for darsan.The heavy flow of pilgrims, which began on Monday evening continued till Tuesday afternoon, on the trekking path between Marakkoottam and Saramkuthi forced them to go without drinking water and food.Aravana distribution hit: Aravana prasadam distribution at the new facility at Malakappuram came to a standstill for two hours on Tuesday morning.Lack of adequate stock was the reason for the disruption in the distribution. The problem in the transportation of the prasadam containers from the manufacturing facility near Sannidhanam on account of the heavy crowd of pilgrims in the North Nada of the temple was the cause for the close down of the counters. NDRF commandos arrive: A 30-member commandos of the NDRF arrived at Sannidhanam for their specialised mission.The team, arrived from Kozhikode, will be replaced by the 200-member force from its Arakkonam centre in Tamil Nadu in a few days.