BHUBANESWAR: Governor Ganeshi Lal had to turn back from the
Jagannath Temple in Puri on Sunday without stepping inside the premises as he was not carrying a Covid negative test report. He was afforded a darshan of Lord Jagannath from Lion’s Gate or Singhadwar, the outer entrance of the Jagannath Temple, following which he left the area.
It is mandatory for all devotees to carry the report of a Covid test — RT-PCR or rapid antigen — conducted not more than 96 hours before the time of entry into the shrine.
Asked if the governor was stopped at the shrine’s entrance, the temple administration said he turned back from the gate on his own volition. “The honourable governor showed respect to the government’s decision on the requirement of Covid negative report for entering the temple. He offered prayer to the Patitapaban outside the temple and voluntarily refused to enter the temple,” the temple’s chief administrator Krishan Kumar said.
School and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash, who had to turn back from the temple in the morning as he too did not have a test report, finally managed to enter in the afternoon after undergoing a quick virus test. “I did not have the Covid negative report in the morning when I had come near the temple to oversee the arrangements. Later, my wife and I underwent a rapid antigen test and entered the temple after our test reports came negative,” Dash said.
Dash and Lal were among the hundreds of people who visited Puri on Sunday to catch a glimpse of the deities Jagannath, Subhadra and Balabhadra.
At least 3,000 other devotees could not enter the temple on Sunday as they did not have a Covid negative report.