After Cop, Contractor Stirs Up Row By Entering Puri Jagannath Temple Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

Puri: A visit by a contractor and his associate reportedly from corona hotpost Bhubaneswar to Jagannath Temple here for construction of Jala Krida Mandap on Monday has sparked off a row.

Puri district is corona-free with the lone patient having recovered from the disease. In addition, the temple is also out of bounds for devotees and only servitors are allowed entry to perform the daily rituals amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

“It needs to be ascertained if he had been tested for coronavirus. if any servitor gets infected, the disease will spread to the entire community. The administration should look into the matter,” senior servitor Binayak Das Mohapatra told the media.

Questions are being raised on whether his health screening was conducted and who granted him the permission to enter the 12th century shrine.

“How was he was permitted to enter the shrine especially a few weeks before Rath Yatra?” questioned Sachetan Nagarika Manch president Prasanna Kumar Das.

Pujapanda Nojog secretary Madhab Pujapanda, however, said that they wanted to get the work done and did not know where the contractor came from.

The IIC of Badachana police station in Jajpur district, Deepak Kumar Jena was earlier suspended for forcibly entering into the temple with his family members in violation of lockdown guidelines on April 19.