Ashram at East Fort loses sanctity

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Abhedashramam Mahamanthralayam at East Fort has been facing the menace of drain water for the past two months owing to a building under construction on the adjacent hospital premises. The structure on the Pattom Thanu Pillai Memorial Government Homoeo Hospital premises has opened a Pandora’s box for the ashram. The new IP block at the hospital is reportedly being erected above a manhole, blocking the waste water from the ashram drains. Problems started soon after the foundation of the building was laid. Now, the situation is such that three trees have to be chopped down to make space for a new manhole. Says Sankarankutty Nair, general secretary of the Abhedashramam Sree Balakrishnaswamy Devaswom Trust: ‘’We complained to the ward councillor and the Kerala Water Authority two months ago. They promised us that prompt action would be taken, which included removal of the three trees that hinder the construction of a new manhole.’’ Though the complaint is two months old, work on chopping down one of the trees began only on Wednesday.  The ashram, with three residential buildings and nearly 35 residents, is facing intense hardships owing to a blockage in the manhole. The inmates even find it hard attending to their primary needs. Many depend on toilets on the first floor of one of the buildings as the water takes some time to flow down the drainpipe and will be absorbed in the soil still later. Elderly inmates find it hard to climb up the steps for this purpose.Ashram head Sukunanandaji resides on the ground floor of a two-storeyed building. ‘’None residing in this building can use the toilets here. I am not opening the windows as I can’t suffer the bad stench from the waterlogged backyard and the attack of mosquitoes,’’ he says. The ashram is also unable to perform rituals, including the ‘seeveli’, at the temple on its premises due to the polluted environs. ‘’The temple used to have two ‘seevelis’ a month. The ceremony has been stopped for two months now as the circumambulating path is untidy with waste,’’ says Trust treasurer Raveendran Nair.   What, in fact, has caused problems for the ashram is the haste shown by the District Panchayat to complete the IP block in record time as it was part of the UDF Government’s 100-day action plan, a hospital official said. The hospital authorities say they have moved papers to cut down the trees in time. They are of the opinion that the move for speedy completion of the building might have delayed the settlement of the drainage problem. ‘’The flow of waste water from drains has come to a halt there. After the trees are removed, a new trench can be constructed for the ashram,’’ a KWA official said.