Cuttack: Thousands of devotees were deprived of having darshan in Dhabaleswar temple due to a stand-off between the priests and the local administration.
According to sources, the devotees had lined up in good number before the main gate of the temple in Athgarh on the second day of ‘Panchuka’ of holy Kartik month since early morning. All the rituals of the deities were also performed in time.
Due to heavy rush of devotees, the local administration had put up barricades to enable them to go in queue to offer puja inside the temple. After some devotees were allowed to go inside the temple, the priests raised objection to the barricades.
As the police deployed there did not heed their protests, the priests and servitors closed the main doors of the temple and sat on a dharna. As a result, thousands of devotees, who were standing in the queue since morning, were unable go inside to have darshan.
On getting information, additional district collector of Athagarh, deputy district collector and additional SP went to the temple and tried to resolve the matter. But the priests did not budge from their ground and demanded the barricades to be removed. The stand-off continued for 5 hours till evening.
The administration expected huge turnout of devotees to offer puja in the temple on Saturday on the occasion of “Bada Osha”. With the priests remaining adamant, the officials feared disturbances in rituals for the day.
Considering this, Athagarh sub-collector issued an official order for opening the temple. A notice of the order was also put up on the temple wall warning the protesting priests of disciplinary action.
Hyderabad: Allu Aravind, film producer and father of ‘Pushpa 2: The Rise’ actor Allu Arjun, said…
Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Odisha government to install CCTV cameras in…
Bhubaneswar: The BJP government in Odisha is taking necessary steps for quick refund of money…
Bhubaneswar: Five members of a gang smuggling country-made guns and involved in several other crimes,…
Bhubaneswar: As 2024 is coming to an end, let’s take a look at some of…
New Delhi: Thirty people are feared dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near Aktau…
This website uses cookies.