Bhubaneswar: For fulfillment of its demand to reopen all four gates of Puri Srimandir and its Ratna Bhandar, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) today staged ‘Sankirtan Satyagrah’ before Congress Bhawan here and Jagannath temples across the State.
The Congress leaders and workers have staged such innovative protests at all the Municipalities and NACs across Odisha.
While the party members held the Satyagrah in front of the Congress Bhavan in Bhubaneswar by putting the idols of the Holy Trinity, the Puri unit of the party sat in front of the Singhadwara of Srimandir and performed Sankirtan as a mark of protest.
Offering Diya, playing cymbals and mridangam, the OPCC leaders including its president Sarat Pattanayk staged protests over various demands including the opening of four gates of the Jagannath Temple in Puri for devotees during the auspicious Kartik month.
Besides, they are also demanding reopening of Ratna Bhandar for repair & inventory and the return of land belonging to common people acquired by the Vedanta for a project in Puri.
In Puri and several other places, the Sankirtan Satyagraha also witnessed participation of the Lord’s devotees. The idols of the sibling deities – Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath, were also placed near the agitation site.
“A large number of devotees, mostly elderly ones, are standing in queues for hours to enter the Jagannath temple in Puri as only one gate is opened,” said Pattnayak.
“Crores of Lord Jagannath devotees are pained over the Government’s decision to close three of the four gates of Puri temple. The Sankirtan is performed in order to invoke Lord Jagannath’s blessings. Good sense should prevail upon the state government so that the temple gates are opened for smooth darshan of devotees,” he said.
“The Odisha Government is standing as a wall in between the Lord Jagannath and lakhs of devotees. If the Government will not re-open the temple gates soon, we will further intensify our agitation and again hit the street,” warned the Congress president.
Earlier, the Government had stated that the three gates of the temple were closed for the ongoing Puri Heritage Corridor Project.
On October 16, the Congress had demonstrated in Puri for the opening of four gates of Srimandir. The party had handed over a memorandum to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in this regard giving Oct 28 as an ultimatum to meet its demands. The party staged protests today in a unique way as the Government did not fulfil its demand before Kartik.