Lingaraj Temple

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 26: Servitors of Lingaraj Temple today reiterated their demand for a special act to regulate the affairs of the 11th century shrine.

At a preparatory meeting for Shivratri, which will be observed tomorrow, servitors also demanded creation of a permanent post of temple administrator.

“We have been demanding a special act for management of the temple, which is one of the most famous shrines in the state. Without a separate act, the properties of temple are being encroached upon and the servitors are not getting benefits due to them,” said president of Pujapanda Nijoga Kashinath Pujapanda.

While Jagannath temple in Puri is being governed by Shri Jagannath Temple Act, all other temples of the city are being managed under the Odisha Hindu Religious Endowments Act.

Under a special act, an administrator is conferred with more powers and he can order eviction of encroachers from the temple land.

Ekamra MLA Ashok Kumar Panda, who was also present in the meeting, said he would take up the matter with the state government.

Officials in the temple administration said that though the temple had around 1500 acres of land in various parts of the state, most of this land was under encroachment. If a special law was made for the temple, eviction would be easy.

Police have made elaborate arrangements for tomorrow’s Shivratri festival. While around 25 platoons of police would be deployed to manage law and order and traffic, 14 CCTV cameras installed in and around the temple would keep a tab on the movement of devotees and other visitors.

Two control rooms would be set up, one inside the temple administration office and another at Lingaraj police station, to monitor the CCTV footage. “We will ensure that incidents such as pick pockets and eve-teasing do not take place in crowd. The police would also help the servitors in performing the rituals,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

On the other hand, the temple officials hoped that all rituals would be completed in time and the festival would be conducted smoothly.

“The temple will open at 3am and the first arati will be held at 3:30am. The temple will remain open from 4am to 11am for the devotees for darshan, which is called Shahanmela. The mahadeep will be taken to the top of the temple by 10pm,” said executive officer of the temple Abani Kumar Patnaik.