Thrissur Pooram ‘disruption’ inquiry points to avoidable oversights, suggests corrective steps

A State police investigation into the alleged disruption of the Thrissur Pooram, which arguably put the Left Democratic Front government on the defensive ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, has reportedly pointed to a succession of avoidable oversights but stops short of directly apportioning blame to any entity involved in the iconic festival’s conduct. Officials privy to the report said the inquiry stressed that stakeholders, including the Thiruvambadi-Paramekkavu Devaswoms and the district administration, strike a consensus on sensitive matters such as crowd control, closure of roads, vehicular and pedestrian traffic management, fireworks and elephant processions, instead of taking arbitrary and spur-of-the-moment decisions that cause unnecessary friction.. Officials said the report recommends issuing identity cards to elephant handlers to avoid any future controversy of the police preventing fodder bearers. They said the inquiry report recommends issuing wireless networks to revenue officers to keep communication channels open in real-time, given that sizeable mobile-phone-wielding festival crowds cause service provider networks to overload.