While half of the city will remain locked from Thursday night till early Saturday due to Section 144 of CrPC for the Snan Purnami festival on Friday, the entire pilgrim town will witness complete shutdown for whole of Saturday and Sunday in view of the Covid pandemic.
Similarly, in view of the Snan Yatra, Section 144 will be in place within one-km radius of the Jagannath Temple from Thursday night. Nobody is allowed to enter the Lions Gate area till 2 am Saturday.
Get together of more than four people in major streets with lanes and bylanes encircling the shrine has been banned.
The administration has sealed all passages to the Lions Gate through barricades. Only a few servitors, officials and police on duty are allowed.
“The Lions Gate area is a banned zone for public. Nobody is allowed to move to the area,” said temple administrator (revenue) Ajay Jena.
The step is to prevent public gathering near the Lions’Gate as lakhs throng Puri every year to watch the ceremony. However, people can watch the Snan Yatra live from televisions and the Doordarshan will telecast the event through GSAT-17. Private channels and media houses can share the DD visuals. So, no OB vans of private channels are allowed to the Lions Gate for live telecast.
For the first time in the history of Jagannath Temple, the SnanYatra is going to be observed without public participation.