Puri, May 11: Servitors of the Jagannath temple and members of the Jagannath Sena today created a mountain out of a molehill because of the "inadvertent mistake" of the wife and son of an IAS officer who entered a restricted area inside the 12th Century shrine.
The wife and son of Rajesh Verma, the principal secretary to the chief minister, had "unknowingly" entered an area between the Jagmohan (prayer hall) and the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, while the IAS officer was inspecting the renovation on an official visit there last night.
A temporary restriction on entry of devotees to the Jagmohan, the sanctum sanctorum and the passage that lies in between has been imposed for the ongoing renovation at the temple. As a result, all devotees are allowed to go only up to the Jay Bijay Dwar to pay obeisance to the deities. Only servitors, renovation workers and inspecting officials can go beyond.
The Jay Bijay Dwar is located about 10 metres away from the Jagmohan.
However, the administration has not put up any notice board mentioning "no entry" in front of the restricted zones, leaving scope for human error.
An official of the temple administration said the incident took place late at night when there were few security staff around.
"As no one raised any objection, Mrs Verma and her son entered inside. However, they returned once they realised their mistake," said the official.
Puri collector Arvind Agarwal, who was also a part of Verma's inspecting team, also said that the entry of the two was an "inadvertent mistake".
"They had no idea that there was a restriction on the entry. They came out of the inner barricade as soon as they realised their mistake. They also expressed regret for doing this unknowingly," he added.
But despite the "regret" expressed by Verma's wife and son, a section of sevayats wasted no time in seizing the incident and questioning various restrictions imposed on them and devotees by the temple administration for the ongoing renovation there.
Members of the Jagannath Sena went to the extent of lodging a police complaint against Verma's wife and son.
"While the district administration had taken action against a number of servitors for the fault of one servitor who had taken his daughter to the chariots, why should action not be taken against the bureaucrat's wife? The temple administration had taken action against a woman who climbed atop the chariot. Now, the district administration must take action against the erring persons," said Jagannath Sena chief Priyadarshan Patnaik.
Servitors and members of the Jagannath Sena today staged a demonstration in front of the temple protesting against the violation caused by Verma's wife and son.
Raghunath Goccikar, who lodged a complaint against the IAS officer's wife and son with the temple office on this issue, said: "Our relatives are not allowed to enter the prohibited area. Then why should the family members of the VIPs be allowed? There cannot be separate laws."
Verma nor his wife were available for comment.
