PURI, Nov 26: Sri Jagannath temple will remain open through out the night on Sunday to facilitate lakhs of devotees to have darshan of Laxminarayan Vesha of deities on the fourth day of Panchuka brata, Temple Chief Administrator Ranjan Kumar Das told media persons here. He said since today is Sunday a large number of devotees besides Panchuka brata observers have flocked in to Puri for darshan of Laxmi Narayan Versha of the deities. Administration is trying to give an opportunity to them for darshan , he added. More devotees are expected on Kartik Purnima day( on Monday) to witness the Rajrajeswar Vesha(Suna vesha) of the deities atop the Ratna simhasan, he said. The nitees and rituals have been streamlined to complete the Suna Vesha by 8 AM. Das said. Superintendent of police K.Vishal Singh said anticipating unprecedented crowd of devotees another five platoons of police personnel have been deployed inside the temple while security has been beefed up to regulate the vehicular traffic. He said an advisory will be issued tonight for the public to park their vehicles in designated parking areas located at different parts of the town. Additional police personnel are being deployed to regulate the pilgrim traffic from municipal market square barricade , informed the S P. The temple door was opened at 4.50 AM on Sunday and after purification was over priests performed Mangal arati followed by daily chores Mailum, Abakash, Tadap Lagi, Rosahoma and Suryapuja. Therafter Gopal Bhog was offered. The Laxmi Narayan Vesha was completed by 9.20 AM. Darshan is going on and will continue all through the night. On the other side officers assisted by volunteers distributed Sukhila bhog(dry mahaprasad) such as Pheni Khaja, Nuni Khurma, Dali Khaja and Magaj Nadoo in packets among the inmates of five Habishyali centres as the month long Kartik brata will conclude on the Monday. District collector Samarth Verma went to the Brundabati Nibas , an eight story building on Sunday where a large number of Habishyalis are housed and distributed dry mahaprasad packets to habishyalis to carry home and give their families taste of Mahaparasad. Senior officers also went to four other centres and distributed mahaprasad. Verma interacted with Habishyalis who are in high praise of the administration and the chief minister Naveen Patnaik for enabling scores of elderly devotees to observe this monthlong Kartik brat at government expense. They said this year’s arrangements were better than the previous year while showered blessings on Chief Minister. About three thousand habishyalis were hosted by the administration to observe the brata at government expense. This apart religious discourses by scholars were organised daily at evenings while their health conditions were frequently monitored by medico teams. Blankets were also distributed among them to protect them from cold. Most of them are to return by Monday. (UNI)
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