Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Shree Jagannath Temple and district administration finally uplifted the mandatory production of COVID-19 negative report as a precondition before entering the temple for the devotees. Now, devotees can visit the temple as Shree Jagannath temple will be fully accessible to all from 21st January.
A meeting was held between the Shree Jagannath Temple and district administration where Puri Collector Samarth Verma, SPK Vishal Singh, chief district medical officer Dr. Sujata Mishra, sub-collector Bhabataran Sahu and servitors of the temple managing committee also participated and concluded that no such COVID-19 negative report is compulsory for the entry in the temple.
Krishan Kumar, Chief administrator of Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) stated to the media that arrangements have been made to facilitate proper and safe darshan for 30,000 devotees every day. Devotees of Puri would be allowed for one hour from 6 am to 7 am every morning while the darshan schedule for others will be in three sessions – 7 am to 12 noon, 2.30 pm to 4 pm, and 4.40 pm till the closing of the temple gates for the day. Darshan would not be allowed on Sundays.
When the administration earlier informed the public that a compulsory covid-19 report is mandatory for getting entry to the temple, there was a little disagreement between the people and a large number of devotees had to return dejected after failing to get the test report so fast. Many devotees were against this rule and demanded that instead of a Covid negative report the authority much have access to proper testing facilities.
Earlier the administration had announced to facilitate the entry of 17,000 devotees into the temple daily. But then the average entry was below 3000 due to the mandatory covid negative report.
Image Source – Google
