Impasse Continues In Mangala Temple At Kakatpur

Kakatpur: Impasse continued at Maa Mangala Temple at Kakatpur in Odisha’s Puri district with the servitor’s body still on dharna protesting against the arrest of three servitors by the local police for allegedly assaulting some devotees on Sunday.

Talking to mediapersons on Tuesday, senior servitor and former president of Maa Mangala Temple Trust Board Lalit Kumar Dikshit said the meeting between the servitor’s body and the district administration remained inconclusive. “We will continue with the dharna till our demands are met. If necessary, we will seek the intervention of the Chief Minister,” he added.

The servitors who have been staging a dharna on the temple premises since 7 am on Monday, had a meeting with the Nimapara SDPO Niranjan Padhi and Kakatpur tehsildar Rojina Das at about 12 pm. However, the two-hour meeting remained inconclusive.

Talking to the media after the meeting, the SDPO said the meeting with the servitors is on. “We have informed the matter to the higher authorities and we hope that the impasse will be resolved very soon,” he pointed out.

The incident had taken place on September 16 when the family of two constables visited the temple. Later, the family members were detained at the Jagmohan of the temple by the servitors who had asked about their whereabouts. Later, there was an altercation between the servitors and the family over the dakhina (donation), which lead to a scuffle between them.

Later, the families went to Kakatupur police station and lodged a complaint to which the police, after investigating into the matter, arrested three servitors and forwarded them to the court.

Protesting against the action of the police, the servitors staged dharna in front of the temple. Alleging that the police had intentionally made the arrests, the servitors’ body claimed that the family members had attacked some of the servitors inside the temple which was captured in the CCTV camera.