PURI: Despite the tall claims of the district administration to facilitate 17,000 devotees to have darshan of the Trinity in a day, only 8,000 visitors have been able to enter Srimandir since it opened doors to non-Puri residents on January 3. There has been a massive turnout of devotees at the abode of Lord Jagannath to have darshan of the deities but Srimandir entry has been granted to only a section of them due to the mandatory Covid negative certificate provision.
Most of the visitors are unaware of the fact that they need to produce a Covid negative certificate obtained within 96 hours before having darshan. This has forced devotees to stand in long queues in front of the lone private hospital in Puri for Covid test. While the private facility can conduct 500 tests a day, the district headquarters hospital has the capacity to test 100 samples daily but of only locals.
The low attendance of visitors at Sri Jagannath temple is due to inability of devotees to get a Covid negative certificate. Social activist Anil Sahu said making production of Covid negative report mandatory for devotees to enter Srimandir is as good as closing the temple gates for them. The State government has lifted this rule at Lingaraj temple and the administration should also do the same in Srimandir to enable devotees a hassle-free darshan, he added.
On the other hand, in a bid to cash in on the situation, many unscrupulous persons are allegedly manufacturing fake negative certificates using photoshop applications and selling those to devotees. While police are yet to confirm any such incident, many reports about the fraudulent activity are being telecast on electronic media. Owner of e-24 hospital, the private facility authorised by the administration to perform Covid tests, Rajesh Mishra filed a libel suit against three electronic mediahouses for falsely implicating the hospital in their news report.
Meanwhile, Sub-Collector Bhabataran Sahu said till Wednesday, 12 devotees from other states have tested Covid positive. They have been put in isolation. An advisory has been issued to hoteliers to sanitise their premises properly and provide accommodation to people having Covid negative certificates. “We advise devotees coming to Puri for darshan of the Trinity to get their swab samples tested at their native places,” Sahu added.