Odisha Assembly Adjourned Over Disruption In Jagannath Temple Rituals

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly was stalled on Tuesday due to uproar by the Opposition Congress and BJP members over the disruption in the rituals of the Lords in Jagannath Temple in Puri forcing the Speaker to adjourn the house thrice.

As soon as the question hour session began, the Congress and BJP members demanded a discussion on the impasse in the Jagannath Temple. But as Speaker Pradip Amat did not give his ruling, the irate opposition members rushed to the well of the House and shouted slogans against the government apathy.

Unable to run the House, the Speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 am.

The issue again cropped up during zero hour as the opposition members stuck to their demand and did not allow the House to function. Amid pandemonium, the Speaker adjourned the House against till 12.50 pm.

But as the situation continued to prevail in the House, the Speaker announced its adjournment till 3 pm and announced an all-party meeting to resolve the issue.

Briefing mediapersons after the adjournment, leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra said the manner in which the rituals of the Lords were disrupted and both the Lords and the devotees were deprived of Mahaprasad is grossly unfortunate and condemnable.

“Those who were in charge of performing the rituals and monitoring the rituals should be taken to task for dereliction of duty. It is true that the Orissa High Court has given the order on rituals to be performed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. But keeping the grievances of the servitors in view, the SJTA could have either prayed the court for reconsideration of its order to this effect or consulted with the servitors’ bodies as to how to perform the rituals in line with the order of the High Court,” Mishra pointed out.

In his reaction, BJP member Pradip Purohit said the disruption in rituals of the Lords in Shri Jagannath temple has deeply hurt the sentiments of the devotees not only in Odisha but also across the world.

“Though the servitors of Suara-Mahasuara Nijog are on a dharna in front of the Simhadwara of the temple and near Emar Mutt since late evening on Monday in protest against the disruption of rituals and demanding compensation against the huge loss of Mahaprasad to the tune of about Rs 50 lakh which remained unsold as it could not be offered to the Lords, neither the SJTA nor the state government has not shown any urgency over such sensitive matter. It is the high time that the state government should wake up from its deep slumber and act in haste to resolve the issue at the earliest and take appropriate action against the guilty,” the BJP leader demanded.

Expressing profound regret over the state of affairs in Shri Jagannath temple, government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy said the state government is fully aware of the situation and will do the needful without wasting any time.

Refuting the statements of the opposition leaders he said the state government has no intention to play politics on Lord Jagannath. “The government will take necessary steps to ensure that no such untoward incident would take place in future and those responsible for the entire incident would be taken to task,” he averred.