Kendrapada auto drivers tonsure head in protest

Members of the Auto-Rickshaw Association in the district headquarters town of Kendrapada on Wednesday resorted to a unique protest against the mismanagement in the lord Jagannath’s Brahma Parivartan rituals and also alleged Daru fixing in the ongoing Nabakalebar festival.The auto drivers tonsured their heads and took a dip in the Gobari river on the bank near the Sujanpur Mangala temple here after offering Shraddha to the Badagrahis (body protectors of lords).

Seething with anger, they made a beeline to the riverbank and performed the rites to register their protest. Clad in dhotis, the traditional attire worn on such occasions, the youths were seen sitting cross-legged on the floor with their heads bent forward.“We demand the strictest possible action against all those responsible – whether they are administrators, servitors or someone else, for the mess,” said Soumya Ranjan Jena, an office-bearer of the association

.

Jena’s colleague Madhab Chandra Pradhan demanded that the mobile phones of the Daitapatis, who had carried them inside during the Ghata Parivartan ritual, be scanned and action initiated against them.