Show-cause notice to 42 servitors

PURI: Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday issued show-cause notice to 42 servitors of Sri Jagannath Temple for violating its guidelines during the Rath Yatra, including Snana Purnima ritual.
The temple guidelines were drawn as per a judgment of the Supreme Court and Orissa High Court directives. These guidelines included not to touch the deities, not to break the inner cordon of the deities, not to encourage any devotee touch the deities, to keep intact the floral tiaras of the deities after use during ‘pahandi,’ not to collect ‘dakshina’ from the devotees and not to keep pitchers or ‘thaali’ for collection of donation.

The administration had installed several CCTV cameras inside the temple complex and at various places of the venue to monitor activities of the servitors and devotees during Rath Yatra.

After Niladri Bije, the temple managing committee members examined the CCTV footage of the entire festival and detected gross violations of guidelines. It was found that some off duty servitors had touched the deities during ‘pahandi’ while some had damaged the floral tiaras of the deities by breaking the inner cordon. The servitors were directed to file their reply within a month to the show-cause notice which was issued by temple administrator P K Das.