Puri, May 15: The Sri Jagannath temple’s servitors have given threats of boycotting the Chhatisa Nijog meeting that is scheduled to be held today at the SJTA office.
This will happen if no action will be taken against the wife and son of Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Rajesh Verma for getting into Bhitarakatha, the inner barricade within the temple’s sanctum sanctorum on May 10. Senior servitor of the temple, Rajat Kumar Pratihari said that although an FIR has been lodged for the same, still no action has been taken against the family of Rajesh Verma. Thus, SJTA has demanded to initiate some steps or else servitors will boycott the Chhatisa Nijog meeting. Another servitor Soumendra Muduli has stated that a request has been forwarded to the SJTA to find a way out upon discussions with parties. Puri district collector Arvind Agarwal stated that the Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary’s family has accepted the entry of Verma’s wife and son into the temple’s Bhitarakatha to be a mistake made ‘unintentionally’. This happened when Puri Collector and SJTA official, Verma were inspecting the Jagamohan repair work progress and it was then the wife and son entered the area close to the Ratnasinhasana. Notably, outsiders are prohibited from entering the inner sanctum sanctorum of the Srimandir because of the Jagamohan repair work and can pay their worship to their deities near the Jay Bijaya Dwara only.
