Rituals normal at Puri Srimandir

Puri, Dec 29: After an ugly scene unfolded on Friday as devotees broke barricades and stormed into Puri Srimandir over delayed darsan, the daily rituals finally began smoothly last evening.

Today morning, all the rituals were completed in a peaceful manner including the Pahuda ritual, Singhadwara opening ritual, Deula Dwaraphita and Mangala alati.

As per the sources, the entire episode began on Thursday night, when a senior servitor got involved in a scuffle with police personnel deployed at  the Singhadwara. The clash occurred after cops demanded to produce identity cards for entry to some devotees outside the Singhadwara. Which later turned into a worse fight  between servitors and police.

The Sri Jagannath Temple Authoruty (SJTA) chief Pradipta Mohapatra had left the decision on conscience of servitors and everything finally returned to normalcy in the enening.