BHUBANESWAR: On the occasion of Bahuda Yatra in Puri on Monday, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) took measures to control the crowd on the chariots by asking many servitors, who had no specific duties to perform, to deboard.
The administration decided to file FIRs against three individuals who had ascended the chariots posing as servitors.The SJTA faced criticism for not being able to manage the crowd on the chariots effectively during Rath Yatra on July 7. Besides, the presence of a large number of servitors also led to the fall of Lord Balabhadra’s idol on July 9. To prevent such situation, the SJTA formed teams to remove servitors who had no role to play on the chariots during the Pahandi ritual on Monday.
“Bahuda Yatra’s Pahandi ritual was performed in a disciplined manner thanks to the cooperation of servitors. Those servitors who did not have any duty refrained from crowding the periphery of the deities,” said Arabinda Padhee, the chief administrator of SJTA.
Padhee spotted a fake servitor on a chariot and took him out. He asked the SJTA to lodge a complaint against the imposter. Besides, the temple body has been asked to lodge FIRs against two other men, including a central govt officer, who ascended the chariots in the garb of servitors on July 7.
Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida praised the arrangements stating that devotees had a hassle-free darshan of the deities on the chariots on Bahuda Yatra.
“The chariots were not overcrowded. This helped devotees to clearly see the deities,” Parida said. Following the incident related to Lord Balabhadra’s idol, the SJTA issued a warning to servitors, stating that strict action would be taken against them if they gathered in large numbers on the chariots.
As per Rath Yatra guidelines, a total of 74 people (60 servitors and temple staff and 14 ghantuas, who beat gongs and cymbals) should be present on Taladhwaja chariot of Lord Balabhadra, 62 people (50 servitors and temple staff, and 12 ghantuas) on Darpadalana chariot of Devi Subhadra and 86 people (16 ghantuas and 70 servitors and temple staff) on Lord Jagannath’s chariot Nandighosha.

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