‘No plan to start online booking for darshan in Puri Jagannath temple’
Jagannath temple premises
BHUBANESWAR: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in Puri on Thursday said it had no plan to receive online booking from devotees for the darshan of the deities in the shrine.
The famous 12th century Jagannath temple along with other religious institutions across the state continued to remain shut for devotees since March 20 in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
The SJTA’s clarification came hours after Ramachandra Dasmohapatra, a member of the Jagannath temple managing committee (MC) and senior servitor, told the media that the shrine body was planning to launch the online booking system for darshan in view of the pandemic.
“We had recently raised the issue in the MC meeting. We urged the SJTA to open the temple and allow devotees in a restricted manner. A proposal was given to the SJTA to explore the feasibility of accepting online booking from a limited number of devotees for allowing them darshan in the temple. The applicants should carry RT-PCR negative test report,” Dasmohapatra told media persons.
Dasmohapatra said the government should consider the hardship of servitors and devotees due to the closure of the shrine for over four months. He said proper screening of devotees and sanitation facilities should be created at the temple to allow darshan amid the new normal.
SJTA said no such proposal was mooted in any recent MC meeting. “We have neither received any proposal nor taken any decision to open the temple, let alone the launch of online booking system. The state government has not taken any decision to open Jagannath temple,” SJTA’s administrator (ritual) Jitendra Kumar Sahoo told TOI.
The development came close on the heels of a petition that was filed by a devotee in Orissa high court on Monday, seeking reopening of the Puri Jagannath temple and other shrines in the state. In his petition, the devotee Trilochan Rath said the state government should reopen temples as it already allowed reopening of markets and liquor shops.