Police Gear Up For Rath Yatra In Puri, Hold Meeting With Servitors

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Puri: With less than a month left for the Rath Yatra, the police administration of Puri in Odisha on Sunday held a meeting with the ‘daitapatis’ and ‘sevayats’ (servitors) of Jagannath temple on the preparations for the annual festival.

Speaking to media persons in the town, Puri SP Pinak Mishra said they were gearing up to ensure a peaceful and hassle-free celebration of Rath Yatra which is scheduled to be held on July 7 this year.

“We have been holding talks with all stakeholders on preparations for Rath Yatra for the last few days. As part of this process, we discussed with some daitapatis and sevayats (servitors) of the Jagannath temple on Sunday,” he said.

He further said since the servitors play a prominent role during the Rath Yatra, discussions were held in details regarding the rituals and the timing of performing those. “We pointed out different problems faced during the Rath Yatra last year and wanted to know what steps should be taken to prevent those. They gave their suggestions on some issues which we will look into,” he added.

Rush of devotees

On the arrangements for managing heavy rush of devotees, the SP said, “We find that the number of devotees at the temple goes up two to three times on weekends and the days of festivals. We appeal to the people, who are coming on those days, to have patience and wait for their turns while standing in queues to enter the temple. Since the security of the devotees outside the temple is our top priority, we seek their cooperation in this regard,” he said.

Today being the last days of Raja festival, an unusual gathering of devotees was found for darshan of sibling deities in the Pilgrim Town. Thousands of devotees from different parts of the state and neighobouring states lined up before all four gates of the temple since morning.

The devotees faced difficult times as they had to stand under the sky amid high temperature. The things worsened as the temple administration and police restricted their entry from Sata Pahacha. However, no unusual incident was reported during the day.