A day after disruption of rituals in the Shreemandir for over 12 hours triggered deep resentment among devotees, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Chief Administrator Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra on Saturday said the shutdown incident and disruption of rituals at the temple would be investigated and suitable action would be taken against those found guilty. Mohapatra said the servitors have been issued a warning so that such incidences do not occur in the future.
“A similar incidence had also happened in 2012 when I was the SJTA Chief Administrator. Recurrence of such issues does not bode well. The service to the Lords is the prime responsibility of the servitors while the administration has a little role to play. If they stay obstinate and do not cooperate during times of disputes then it feels like the administration is helpless,” he said.
He added that the rituals disruption continued for hours as the servitors made some irresponsible demands. “The demands for transfer of the district Superintendent of Police and withdrawal of police cases in connection with the October 3 violence are unacceptable,” he said. Notably, thousands of devotees had to wait for long hours outside the temple since early morning on Friday after the servitors shut the temple gates and refused to carry out rituals protesting an alleged assault on one of their colleagues by police on Thursday evening. Irate devotees breached police barricades several times and tried to barge into the shrine. After district Collector Jyoti Prakash Das and SP Sarthak Sarangi held a series of meetings with the servitors, the rituals were normalised at 5.15 in the evening and the devotees were allowed to have darshan of the deities after the gates of the temple were thrown open and the temple administration allowed the darshan till late night.