Baripada: Days after servitors dropped their marathon padayatra to Bhubaneswar demanding Dwitiya Shrikhetra tag for Baripada Jagannath temple, the issue has reappeared with the Barista Nagarika Manch taking up the issue with the district administration Friday.
Narendramohan Senapati, Gyanaranjan Tripathy, Sarat Chandra Nayak, Bhagbat Panda and others submitted a memorandum containing signatures of thousands of people to ADM Braja Chandra Bhola. The memorandum was addressed to the Chief Minister.
Copies of the memorandum will be forwarded to the Culture and Tourism Minister, Revenue Minister and the Endowment Department.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the CM’s Office has sent a letter to Collector Vineet Bhardwaj Friday, stating that servitors can meet the Chief Minister at his office at 11.45 am Saturday in Bhubaneswar.
Servitors are getting ready to leave for Bhubaneswar Friday night. The servitors are hopeful of a positive response from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik regarding their demands.
The servitors of Baripada Jagannath Temple had halted their padayatra to Bhubaneswar midway June 19 after an assurance from the Revenue Minister to look into their demands by June 30.
They had started a padayatra of 250 km that day at 8 am from Jagannath Temple in Baripada to Bhubaneswar over their demand for Dwitiya Srikhetra tag to the temple.
After they walked seven km from the town, the Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management, Sudam Marndi and Baripada Sub-Collector (In-charge of the Endowment Department) Dibyajoti Parida held talks with them.
All servitors – Anga Sevaks, Mandira Sevaks and Ratha Sevaks – were part of the marathon walk to Bhubaneswar to meet the Chief Minister. The padayatra was called off midway.
The servitors said that during electioneering for the fourth phase of elections they had raised the demand for Dwitiya Srikhetra status for the Jagannath Temple in Baripada before Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who had visited the temple.
They pointed out that Baripada Jagannath Temple has its own specialty. Rath Yatra usually begins here a day after it starts at Puri.
Another tradition here is that only women are allowed to pull the chariot of Devi Shubhadra. People have been calling it Dwitiya Shrikhetra, but the government has not recognised it, they said.
PNN