PURI: The unsavoury disturbances in Jagnnath temple, which had subsided two days back, returned to the 12th century shrine on Saturday with the servitors threatening to disrupt the world famous Rath Yatra in protest against inquiry report on April 17 incident. The servitors took exception to the inquiry report of Neeti Administrator of the Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) PK Dash which indicted seven of them for the April 17 incident when the deities went without offering for several hours.
The report identified the seven servitors who intentionally created situations to disrupt the rituals. President of the Suara Mahasuara Nijog Damodar Mahasuar described the report as a conspiracy against the servitors. “The temple administration is trying to defame us before the devotees,” he said. Similarly, Dai t a p a t i R a m - akrushna Dasmohapatra asked the SJTA not to accept it as it would create problems during the Rath Yatra on July 14.
The three-page inquiry report submitted to the temple’s Chief Administrator on Friday stated that during Mangala Arati on April 17, Damodar Mahasuar and Bhabani Shanker Mahapatra prevented another servitor from performing his duty in the sanctum sanctorum. As a result, the Pujapanda could not perform puja.
The report further stated that Mahasuar and Mahapatra along with five others deliberately tried to disrupt the daily schedule of the deities on the pretext that they did not know the Orissa High Court order in this regard and demanded the copy of the order causing delay in regular rituals. They even did not allow the substitute servitor to enter the sanctum sanctorum on the same ground. The replacement was necessitated as the servitor on duty was unable to perform on health ground.
The report also mentioned that similar situations cropped up a number of times in the temple on the day as these servitors acted against the norms of the temple rituals. Due to the delay in rituals, the bhog and Mahaprasad (cooked food) could not be offered to the deities. The supakaras had demanded a compensation of Rs 30 lakh from the temple administration towards their loss and on refusal, staged a demonstration in front of the temple. They also stopped cooking the bhog for devotees for four days. Normalcy returned to the temple in performing the rituals and preparing bhog on Thursday. Meanwhile, the temple administration is studying the inquiry report and suitable action would be taken as per the provisions of temple Act.