Puri Srimandir reopens for All; Covid Negative Report Must

TNI Bureau: Tears of joy spread across the faces after Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri reopened today after 8 AM for the devotees to darshan Mahabraprabhu Jagannath and his siblings Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra.

SJTA Chief Administrator, Krishan Kumar, assured a hassle-free arrangement for darshan of the 12th-century shrine.

Approximately, 15,000 to 17,000 devotees are permitted  inside the premise following the COVID-19 protocols.  The devotees need to produce COVID negative reports or COVID negative certificates (RT-PCR/ Antigen) within 96 hours before the visit. Puri District Collector Balwant Singh has strictly barred the visitors from consuming Mahaprasad inside the temple.

Some of the guidelines listed:

• The devotees are requested to wear a mask inside and outside the temple premises and must bring COVID-19 negative reports along with Photo IDs.
• The devotees are required to sanitise the hands before entering the premise and maintain physical distancing during darshan.
• The devotees are not allowed to caress the idols and are prohibited from bringing in flowers/bhogas and so on.
• No lighting of deepa is allowed.
• The devotees are allowed to park either at Ballav Math premise or other designated areas.
• The visitors have to enter from Singhadwara and exit from Uttaradwara.
• The devotees are not allowed to consume Mahaprasada inside the premises of the temple.

The administration has planned to ease restrictions in the following month.

In the first phase, the temple had reopened for the servitors and his families at 7 AM on December 23, 2020. However, they were exempted from producing COVID-19 reports as the administration knew about the local status of COVID-19.

In the second phase, the people staying under the Puri Municipality area were allowed to revisit between December 26 and December 31. The shrine was closed on January 1, 2021, and January 2, 2021, and reopened on January 3, 2021.