Srimandir doors reopen, families of servitors get Trinity darshan

PURI:  After a hiatus of nearly four months, the doors of Srimandir were unlocked for devotees on Friday.
Early in the morning, hundreds of servitors’ families entered the 12th century shrine to witness Mangal Alati of the Trinity. The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has allowed families of servitors to have darshan of the deities on August 13 and 14. Since almost all servitor families are inoculated, they were not required to show any vaccination or RT-PCR negative certificate. 

From August 16 to 20, residents of all 32 wards of Puri municipality will be allowed to enter Srimandir in strict adherence to the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the temple administration. The municipality staff have distributed tokens to residents intending to have darshan of the deities. Devotees of every ward have been allotted three hours in a phased manner to enter Srimandir. They have to produce their Aadhaar cards at the entry gate.  

The temple will open doors for all devotees from August 23. Those willing to enter Srimandir will have to furnish the complete vaccination or RT-PCR negative certificate obtained within 96 hours at a special kiosk near the Lion’s gate.  Apart from strict enforcement of the SOP, the administration is raising barricades on Badadanda to ensure that devotees enter the temple in queues by maintaining social distance.  
The Srimandir was closed for devotees since April 24 due to the second Covid wave. Meanwhile, anticipating huge crowd of devotees in Puri after the temple reopens, the presence of police and lifeguards has been beefed up at the beach. On Thursday, a mock drill involving lifeguards, beach police, health workers and fire services personnel was conducted under the direction of Puri SP K Vishal Singh.

The six-km stretch of Puri beach has been divided into several zones. Each zone is to be manned by several units of lifeguards and beach police. This apart, two bike PCRs would patrol the entire beach. The exercise aims to prevent drowning in sea, safe bathing, rescue, administration of first-aid and curb crime. Eight platoons of police force will be deployed to keep watch on visitors, Singh said.