Lakhs throng Odisha’s pilgrim town to seek Lord’s blessings on New Year

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Puri, Jan 1:

Despite chilly, inclement weather with intermittent drizzle all through the day, lakhs of devotees visited the Shree Jagannath temple in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri to thank the Lord for the year just ended and seek His blessings for the year ahead.

Among the nameless lakhs who thronged the Temple were VVIPs like Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Minister Tourism & Culture Ashok Panda, Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patsani, Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty and several other senior leaders of the BJD. In keeping with his exalted status, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had a special darshan of the Lord through the ghanti dwar of the temple.

Chief Minister Patnaik also offered floral tributes at his late father Biju Pattnaik’s samadhi at the Swargadwar here.

While special arrangements had been made by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) for the smooth darshan of the Lords, additional security personnel were deployed in the temple town in view of the customary heavy rush on New Year day eveyr year.

“450 home guards and 35 platoons of policemen, in addition to the existing police force in the district, have been deployed for smooth darshan of the Lords, maintenance of law and order and safety and security of those visiting the pilgrim town,” DGP Sanjeev Marik said.

Devotees in all major towns of the state visited temples to seek divine blessings for a good start to the New Year.

Heavy crowd of devotees was seen at different temples in Cuttack city. Devotees gathered at temples in the city as early as 4 am in the morning to have darshan and seek blessings.  Similar gathering of devotees was also seen at the Samleswari temple in the western Odisha town of Sambalpur.

Devotees prayed at the temple for a quick improvement in the jaundice situation in the town. Sambalpur, it may be noted, is in grip of jaundice and at least 19 people have died due to the disease while over 2000 have been afflicted with the disease.

There were no celebrations in the town in the memory of those who had lost their lives due to the disease.

A large number of devotees and picnickers gathered at Harishankar in Khaprakhol block of Balangir district. While devotees preferred to have a darshan of Hari and Hara on the first day of the New Year, picnickers had a great time on the lush green hills with its gurgling streams considered to be a picnickers’  paradise.