<span style="color: #222222;">In Kerala, the famous annual Attukal Pongala festival is being celebrated today in Thiruvananthapuram city on a low scale amid Covid-19 pandemic. AIR correspondent reports, The State Government has directed people to attend the Attukal Pongala festival strictly adhering to Covid-19 protocols. A recent Government order restricted gatherings at religious festivals to 1500 people.<br />''<br />''Preparing Pongala is considered as an auspicious ritual of the Attukal Goddess temple in Thiruvananthapuram city. However, no Pongala would be permitted in public places and on the roadside.<br />''<br />''The temple administration has decided to restrict the Pongala offering to the temple and to not permit devotees to make offerings inside temple premises. Local Holiday has been declared in the district today where the Pongala offering would begin at 10.50 in the morning and conclude in the afternoon.<br />''<br />''Last year also, Attukal Pongala, the largest annual gathering of women in the world was held without mass gathering of woman devotees in public places in the wake of rising Covid-19 transmission. </span><br />