By Our Correspondent
PURI/BHUBANESWAR: Citing conversation between King Indradyumna and Lord Brahma which was inscribed in ‘Varaha Purana’ how to keep the Temple premises clean, the Shree Lord Jagannath Temple Administration in Odisha’s pilgrimage city of Puri, has decided to ban paan and gutka consumption in the premises of Lord Jagannath Temple from 1 January, 2024. The ban order is applied on servitors, devotees, police officials and temple employees.
“Though there is a provision of penalty for consumption of pan and gutkha on the temple premises, no one was obeying the rule. Our objective is to improve the sanitation of the temple. The violators will be fined up to Rs 500.”, said Chief Administrator, SJTA, Puri, Ranjan Kumar Das on Tuesday.
The temple administration has also urged its staff, servitors of the temple and devotees not to consume pan and gutkha inside the temple.
The SJTA has written a letter to the Chhatisha Nijog in this regard, mentioning about the prevailing provision of penalty on consumption/use of tobacco-related products inside the 12th-century shrine.
The SJTA stated that the norms were not being strictly enforced and empty gutkha packets, paan spits and other polythene were found lying on the premises, which was against the sanctity of the temple.
In August 2019, the SJTA had prohibited such tobacco items inside the premises of the 12th-century shrine and imposed a fine of Rs 500 as a penalty.
