Odisha: Tenants of Puri to get permission to offer prayers in Jagannath temple

BHUBANESWAR: Those living in Puri for reasons of work and tenants from outside will also be allowed to enter the Jagannath Temple for darshan of the deities.
The temple, which reopened on December 23 after nine months of closure in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, is at present allowing servitors, their families and residents of Puri municipality area to offer prayers.
“We will finalize the date on which tenants and working professionals, who do not belong to Puri but stay in the pilgrim town, can get darshan. They should get consent letters from their house owners and respective office heads. Temple entry slips will be given to them after verification,” Puri collector Balwant Singh said.
A source said the relevant date would be finalized before December 31, the last date of exclusive darshan for Puri locals, servitors and their families. The temple will remain closed on January 1 and 2 and all devotees, irrespective of their place of stay, will be allowed in from January 3.
Meanwhile, donation of the Jagannath temple has rebounded with the entry of residents of Puri town from Saturday. Rs 45,184 was received as donation in the temple hundi on Saturday, while Rs 57,051 was received on Sunday — the highest in the past nine months.
Pre-Covid, the hundi donation would be between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh on any given day. Since the closure of the temple, the average donation in the hundi had nosedived to Rs 1,500 per day. On June 14, the temple had received Rs 216 in cash, the lowest-ever donation in recent memory. On July 30, the temple’s hundi had received Rs 52,971.
The temple had received nearly Rs 9 crore and Rs 9.7 crore from the hundi in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 fiscals, respectively. This year, the hundi donation is around Rs 7 lakh so far. The 12th century shrine has received around Rs 20 lakh in donation online, as opposed to Rs 27 lakh in 2018-19 and Rs 29 lakh in 2019-20.
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