COVID negative report free entry in lord Jagannath temple

After opening doors of lord Jagannathtemple for the devotees without COVID-19 negative report, SreeJagannatha Temple Administration (SJTA) Thursday urged Odishagovernment to provide coronavirus vaccines to servitors andtheir family members on a priority basis.

SJTA Chief Administrator Krishan Kumar in a letter toAdditional Chief Secretary, Health and Family WelfareDepartment, P K Mohapatra emphasised on the necessity ofundertaking early vaccination of servitors of the 12th centuryshrine.

''Devotees are allowed to enter the shrine from January 21,2021 without insisting upon any COVID-19 negative certificate.

It is expected that large numbers of devotees will be visitingdaily.

''Therefore, chance of the Sevayats getting infected onaccount of the virus cannot be ruled out as they will becoming in the close contact with the devotees,'' Kumar said inthe letter.

For uninterrupted performance of different 'Nitis'(rituals) of the lords inside the temple, it is suggested thatall servitors and their families may please be vaccinated on apriority basis, he said.

There are 500 numbers of temple officials who may also beinoculated on priority, he added.

Kumar wrote the letter to the government after the issuewas discussed in 'Chatisa Nijog' (servitors body) meeting andit was resolved to move the government.

At least 18 servitors including three members of thetemple management committee have already died of COVID-19during the pandemic, while about 200 of them have testedpositive for the virus so far, a senior servitors said seekingsafety for the community.

On the opening day of the entry into the temple without amandatory COVID negative report, more than 25,000 devoteesvisisted the world-famous shrine, temple management committeesaid.

The temple management, however, has issued a standardoperating procedure (SOP) as part of which a devotee has towear masks at all times,inside and outside of the templepremises.

The SOP also prohibited chewing of tobacco/paan (betelleaf) and spitting in the temple premises, besides devoteeshave to maintain social distancing and also sanitise theirhands before entering the temple.

It further disallowed taking flowers/bhoga/deepa insidethe temple.

There will be no lighting of deepa inside the temple, theSOP highlighted.

The temple will remain closed for public darshan on allSundays in order to sanitise the shrine premises, it added.

A separate queue was made for the senior citizens andpersons with disabilities.

The Puri temple is one of the four ''Dhams'' or mostsacred places of pilgrimages for the Hindus in the country.

The four Dhams are Jagannath Puri in the East, Dwarika inthe West, Badrinath in the North and Rameswaram in the South.

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