A day after stampede Thousands make beeline to have glimpse of sibling deities in Puri

 

 

 

A DAY after three people were killed and 50 others injured in a stampede near Shree Gundicha temple in Puri, thousands of devotees on Monday made a beeline to have a darshan of the sibling deities -- Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. In view of Sunday’s incident, barricades have been erected in front of the Shree Gundicha temple and different queues made for having a smooth darshan of the deities at ‘Adapa Mandap’ (the podium on which the deities are seated) inside the temple, a senior police officer said.

 

The temple office stated that there was no ‘Pahuda’ (closing of the temple’s door for the deities to take rest) on Monday night due to several scheduled rituals following the deities’ entry into the Shree Gundicha temple. “Mangal Aarti was performed at 7.40 am on Tuesday and thousands of devotees witnessed the ritual without any hassle,” a temple official said, adding that the Lords will be offered the cooked ‘prasad’ after almost 20 days. The cooked food offered to the deities in Shree Gundicha temple is called ‘Adapa Mandap Prasad’.

 

“We are alert... By the grace of the Lord, everything is running smoothly. Devotees are entering the Shree Gundicha Temple without any hassle,” IPS officer Soumendra Priyadarshi told PTI. Priyadarshi is an ADG-rank officer who has been given the responsibility of overseeing the police arrangement during Rath Yatra. He was assigned the task by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi after the stampede. Devotees believe that they can wash away their sins if they have a darshan of Lord Jagannath seated atop the ‘Adapa Mandap’.