Meeting between administration, servitors was fruitful, says Puri Collector

Puri: Ahead of Rath Yatra, a meeting between Puri Lord Jagannath Temple servitors and district administration was held on Thursday prior to the third coordination committee meeting on Saturday. While servitors maintained that many issues remained unresolved, Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal claimed the meeting was fruitful.

The district administration discussed the various demands put forth by servitors. The other topics of discussion were the statements of Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati over the servitors touching the deities and authorised and unauthorised servitors issue.

The Suar servitors said that the issue remained unresolved in the meeting. Alleging that the district administration is giving more importance to the Shankaracharya rather than the 'Record of Rights' of the holy shrine, the Sudu Suar servitors had boycotted the meeting.

On the other hand, Daitapati Nijog has said that the discussion on the demands of servitors was successful.

After the meeting, President of the Daitapati Nijog Ramakrushna Das Mohapatra said, "It was finalised in the last moment that all servitors will be in service of Lord Jagannath. Collector and servitors will together visit Shakaracharya to resolve rest of the issues."

Collector Arvind Agarwal said, "The aim of the discussion was to create a cordial relationship between the servitors and district administration and we were successful in it. All of them opened up in the meeting and raised their issues. The discussion was positive and its result will be seen in the coming Rath Yatra."