Puri temple
BHUBANESWAR: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri has decided to double the remuneration of servitors in view of their economic hardship due to closure of the shrine following a surge in Covid cases.
Though the temple has been shut for devotees from April 24, the daily rituals continue to be performed by the servitors. The temple administration had announced to close the temple till May 15, but the state government a few days ago declared closure of all religious places across the state as part of the two-week lockdown from May 5 to May 19.
“We will double the remuneration of servitors on the basis of their services. They will get the benefit from April 1, 2021 with retrospective effect,” temple’s administrator (development) Ajay Jena told TOI.
BHUBANESWAR: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri is planning to do away with mandatory Covid test for temple entry from next week, it is reliably learnt.
A meeting of the administration is scheduled on Sunday. “We expect a favorable decision,” a senior government officer said.
The move comes a day after the state health department suggested an end to the practice of insisting on Covid-19 negative certificate for entering the 12th century shrine, which reopened for all devotees from January 3 after a prolonged shutdown due to the pandemic.
While making a presentation on the pandemic situation before chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday, additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said, “Mandatory testing for entry into temples may kindly be dispensed with as it is a time consuming process for the devotees who also come from far off places. Rather, the Covid appropriate behavior should be strictly observed by the temple authority as is b