Puri: The Jagannath Sevayat Sammilani has urged the servitors of Jagannath Temple to boycott the last Rath Yatra Coordination Meeting to be presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on July 3.
In posters put up outside the temple wall, the outfit, citing instances starting from the Niladri Bije to the alleged letter from Rashtrapati Bhawan, has condemned the repressive attitude Puri collector Arvind Agarwal towards the servitors.
Stating that the collector, in an attempt to tarnish the image of the servitors has started a vilification campaign against the entire community, the outfit has urged them to boycott the coordination meeting.
The servitors were up in arms against the collector after the chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) told the media that it had received no letter from Rashtrapati Bhawan Communique regarding the alleged disrespect to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind by some servitors during their visit to the temple on March 18.
Chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi too had confirmed having not received any letter from the Rashtrapati Bhawan on this issue.
Following the confirmation, senior servitor and assistant secretary of Daitapati Nijog, Binayak Dasmohapatra had lodged a complaint against the Puri collector and former SJTA chief administrator Pradip Kumar Jena at Simhadwara police station, demanding action against them for providing false information and trying to malign the servitor community.
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