Guwahati, June 24: The Kamakhya temple board will stop issuing special passes to devotees so that all visitors have access to the premises during the ongoing Ambubachi mela without any hiccups.

"Since we are expecting a huge rush of devotees to pay obeisance to Goddess Kamakhya from Friday morning, we have asked the Kamakhya Debuttar Board to restrict the special passes normally issued by them. This will help the devotees enter the temple without any problem," Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner M. Angamuthu said here today.

Hence, there will be restrictions on the Rs 500 and Rs 100 passes from Friday to Tuesday that normally gives preference to devotees at the temple. The doors of the Kamakhya temple atop Nilachal hills were closed on Monday night and will be reopened for devotees on Friday morning.

Already five lakh pilgrims from different parts of the country and abroad have visited the Kamakhya temple and the administration is expecting a record of over 10-lakh footfall during the mela till June 30. "Earlier, about eight lakh people had visited during the mela," Angamuthu said.

"No paid passes will be issued from Friday to Tuesday and devotees will be able to enter the temple without any payment," board member Riju Sarma said. The temple gates are closed since Goddess Kamakhya is believed to go through her annual menstruation cycle during this time. The temple witnesses huge crowds on the day the gates re-open.

A multi-layered frisking and security ring has been thrown in and around the Nilachal hills where the temple is located. Police, paramilitary forces and plainclothes security persons have been deployed, keeping in mind the security concern during the mela.

"Kamakhya is a famous temple and Ambubachi mela is an important event from the security perspective. The vehicles with passes are being checked regularly and the devotees will be allowed to enter through the temple gate batch-by-batch in order to prevent any untoward incident," Guwahati police commissioner Mukesh Agarwala said.

Police last night found a sadhu from Punjab with three personal security officers (PSO) provided by the Punjab police on the temple premises and dearmed his PSOs as they had entered without informing the local police. "Normally, a person coming from another state with PSOs informs the local police through the state government but Panchanan Giriji Maharaj did not inform us. We are in touch with Punjab police for details," Agarwala said. He said the three PSOs accompanying the Maharaj had AK-47 rifles.

Protest: A large number of sadhus today staged a protest on the temple premises claiming the Kamrup (metro) district administration was not providing them necessary facilities.

"About 700 sadhus arriving from different parts of the country have set up camp at Dashanani Akhara here. They do not reside in camps where the other pilgrims stay and cook their own food. On June 20, we had applied to the deputy commissioner's office for 10 passes for vehicles that have been arranged to transport them and also bring items (sic) to cook their food. However, these passes were not issued and now the sadhus are facing a lot of difficulty in travelling to the temple and back. Besides, vans carrying edible items are not allowed to travel to the temple without passes," said R. Sarma, a member of the Kamakhya Debuttar Board.

"We are providing them with rice and pulses and other food items but fresh vegetables need to be procured from markets in the foothills. The sadhus are protesting because of these problems and senior police officials arrived on the temple premises to have a discussion," he said.

The district administration denied that vehicle passes had not been provided. Instead, it claimed the problem concerned water supply. "The sadhus were facing some problem regarding water supply. Our officials had a discussion with them and the problem has been sorted out. The situation is under control," the deputy commissioner said.