Pilgrims attack police check-post on Sathram forest path
The Hindu
Sathram, a key base station along the forest route to Sabarimala, witnessed high drama on Saturday with a group of irate pilgrims staging a violent protest.
Sathram, a key base station along the forest route to Sabarimala, witnessed high drama on Saturday with a group of irate pilgrims staging a violent protest. The incident occurred around 7 a.m. when the devotees, who had been waiting in queue for hours, questioned a delay by the police in issuing passes for entering the trekking path. The pilgrims soon resorted to sloganeering and the protest hit a crescendo around 9 a.m. with the devotees attacking a temporary check-post erected at the location.
Unable to control the mob, the police granted a blanket permission to all pilgrims to enter the forest path. It took a couple of hours for the situation to be brought under control and the crowd to disperse.
Incidentally, Saturday reported the highest pilgrim traffic on the forest path for the season. As per official estimate, 5,267 devotees entered the path during the day. So far this season, 37,202 devotees have used this traditional route.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.