Cuttack: Thousands of devotees were deprived of having darshan in Dhabaleswar temple due to a stand-off between the priests and the local administration.
According to sources, the devotees had lined up in good number before the main gate of the temple in Athgarh on the second day of ‘Panchuka’ of holy Kartik month since early morning. All the rituals of the deities were also performed in time.
Due to heavy rush of devotees, the local administration had put up barricades to enable them to go in queue to offer puja inside the temple. After some devotees were allowed to go inside the temple, the priests raised objection to the barricades.
As the police deployed there did not heed their protests, the priests and servitors closed the main doors of the temple and sat on a dharna. As a result, thousands of devotees, who were standing in the queue since morning, were unable go inside to have darshan.
On getting information, additional district collector of Athagarh, deputy district collector and additional SP went to the temple and tried to resolve the matter. But the priests did not budge from their ground and demanded the barricades to be removed. The stand-off continued for 5 hours till evening.
The administration expected huge turnout of devotees to offer puja in the temple on Saturday on the occasion of “Bada Osha”. With the priests remaining adamant, the officials feared disturbances in rituals for the day.
Considering this, Athagarh sub-collector issued an official order for opening the temple. A notice of the order was also put up on the temple wall warning the protesting priests of disciplinary action.
