CUMBUM: Thousands of devotees bound to the Sabarimala temple were stranded on the inter-state border near Gudalur for over 20 hours on Monday as protestors in Kerala refused to allow vehicles from Tamil Nadu to enter the State.Devotees, including number of children and elderly women, were struggling to get food and water as shops remained closed. They were forced to sleep on the wayside near the border. Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed in the area after women and children started pleading with the police officers to help them reach Sabarimala.An outraged devotee Kuppusamy, who was standing with his eight-year-old son near the border, said that his child had not eaten in the last 10 hours. “Don’t they have any heart,” he asked with tears in his eyes. The boy, who was holding on to his father’s hand, looked visibly weak without food and long hours of crying.Another devotee, Shakthivel from Villupuram, said that he was shocked by the treatment meted out to the devotees. “They are the ones who benefit from our pilgrimage as they earn crores of money. We have now realised that Kerala does not give any importance to spirituality,” he fumed.A group of devotees from Bangalore also condemned the actions of protestors from Kerala and said that though TN and Karnataka had lot of differences, pilgrims were never intimidated.“We are ashamed at this ill-treatment of devotees by the protestors. It is clearly showing their immaturity,” Baskar Hegde said.Meanwhile, devotees feared that owing to the protests, the buses will now charge higher rates. “We are also getting a lot of calls from our friends who are inside s about the violence on Tamils there,” said an elderly woman. Many of the locals on the TN side of the border were seen persuading the devotees to end the pilgrimage.
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