Rains posed a tough job on Saturday night for district administration officials, police and construction workers engaged at two Daru sites in Jagatsinghpur district, Adhangagada and Jhankada. While construction workers engaged for widening of roads at Devi Subhada Daru site at Adhangagada couldn’t continue their work, Maharanas and others engaged in cutting and shaping lord Balabhadra Daru at Jhankada Sarala Pith too sat idle for hours due to heavy spell of rains.
However, official sources informed that the Daru shaping and sifting works resumed on Sunday morning as soon as normal weather prevailed. Report said thousands of devotees who made a beeline to Adhangagada to have glimpse of the neem tree, identified for carving of Devi Subhadra’s idol faced a harrowing time. Similarly, workers engaged in construction of Yajna Mandap and Sabarapalli there couldn’t do their work.
Works resumed only on Sunday morning after a change in the weather condition. Jagatsinghpur district Collector SK Mallick admitted that works were affected due to rains occurred on Saturday night. However, he said that all constructions would be over before Yajna starts on Wednesday. Construction works would be expedited further to ensure smooth traffic for devotes to the Daru site. Daru Chaupata works for lord Balabhadra’s Daru resumed at Jhankada on Sunday morning and was expected to be completed by theevening. The Sagadi (cart) making has been completed. lord Balabhadra’s Daru is scheduled to move to Puri on April 29, official sources said.