BHUBANESWAR/PURI: With the management of the huge crowds in the Shree Jagannath temple at Puri following the opening of all four doors of the shrine became a major cause of concern. The government on Monday rushed in additional police forces to streamline the entry, darshan and exit system in the shrine.
Official sources said 18 platoons of police force, three additional SP rank officers, eight deputy SPs and 12 inspectors have been deployed at the temple in three shifts. More force will be deployed during the weekends when the footfall is expected to increase, they said.
A special Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee meeting will be held soon to find solutions for the overcrowding inside the shrine. This was discussed at the review meeting of Snana Purnima and Ratha Yatra chaired by Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan at Puri.
Sources said the minister called for taking appropriate measures inside the Garbha Gruha (sanctum sanctorum) within the next two to three months to ensure hassle-free darshan for devotees. “A special managing committee meeting will be organised soon. It will be chaired by the Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb to finalise the initiatives to be taken for improving the experience of the devotees inside the shrine,” said Puri collector Siddharth Shankar Swain.
After the four gates of the 12th-century shrine were opened on June 13 and the three-day Raja festival that followed, the temple witnessed a mammoth footfall of devotees causing serious problems for them.
Minister Harichandan also called upon the temple servitors for timely completion of the ‘nitis’ during Snana Purnima and Rath Yatra which will be a two-day affair this time. While the timing of rituals for Snana Purnima on June 22 has been fixed, that for the Rath Yatra on July 7 and 8 has been drawn up as per the Rath Yatra schedule of 1971 (the last time when Netra Utsav, Nabajaubana and Gundisha Jatra fell on the same day). The exact timings would be finalised by the Chhatisha Nijog and the managing committee.
The minister asked the servitors and other stakeholders to complete all the rituals for the two events before or on the schedule and not beyond that. He also directed officials of the line departments to put in place public amenities including drinking water for devotees during the two festivals.
Temple chief administrator Vir Vikram Yadav, the collector and SP Pinak Mishra attended the meeting.