Puri: After getting the nod from the Odisha government to reopen the major temples across the state, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) conducted a meeting Friday morning. The meeting would decide on the rules and regulations that are to be followed once the temple reopens keeping in mind the precautions one has to take due to the coronavirus pandemic. Servitors of the temple managing committee and Chief Administrator of SJTA Dr Krishna Kumar were present in the meeting.
The SJTA will take the opinion of senior servitors of the temple regarding procedure of reopening of the temple. Meetings will be conducted in a phased manner from October 12 to 16 so that all the senior servitors can express their opinions.
Sources said that some senior servitors have opined that it would be better to reopen the temple in the holy month ‘Kartika’. They also informed that close to 500 servitors have been infected by the COVID-19 virus while 18 of them have died due to the disease.
Notably, servitors of Puri Jagannath temple staged Tuesday a protest urging Odisha government to take necessary actions to reopen the temple for devotees as soon as possible. They alleged that the state government’s decision is putting an adverse impact on their livelihood.
PNN