A priest performs puja as another person clears drain water from the premises of Amareswar Temple in Cuttack on Friday.

Hundreds of devotees have to wade through wastewater from a nearby drain every day for the past three months to offer puja to the temple's presiding deity. The Amareshwar Temple is one of the city's oldest Shiva shrines, also known as Swayambhu or Hirayanagarbha .

"People are trying to create a clean environment. It is unfortunate that the civic body has failed to provide drainage facilities," said Rashmi Ranjan Mishra, a devotee.

Turnouts cross 3,500 on Maha Shivaratri every year and temple trustees expect more than 5,000 devotees for this year's festival next month.

Temple trust member Sudhir Swain said there was a separate drainage channel to discharge wastewater generated from the temple. The existing drainage channel connects to the main drain near the Police Reserve Line via a culvert outside the temple.

"There is a parallel drain near the temple's existing channel, and because of the blocked culvert, wastewater enters the temple. The problem is acute during rains when the temple premises gets submerged," said Dushmant Daspanda, another devotee.

"We will be forced to launch an agitation if the civic body doesn't resolve the issue before Maha Shivaratri," said Swain.

Municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph that they were aware of the problem and would take steps to resolve the issues. Das said work to clear the blockage in the existing channel would start tomorrow. However, they would not be able to take up major construction following enforcement of the model code of conduct for the upcoming panchayat polls.

"We have asked our engineering team to conduct a survey and come up with a master plan to check accumulation of rain and wastewater inside the temple," Das said.

Text by Vikash Sharma

Picture by Badrika Nath Das