Bhubaneswar: After day-long disruption of rituals at temple of Lord Lingaraj due to conflict between two sects of priests following dispute over Maha Baruni Snana ritual on Saturday, rites of the Lord finally resumed later today.
The standoff between the servitor groups came to an end following a meeting later on the day under the chairmanship of Bhubaneswar ADM Manoj Kumar Mohanty who is also the chief of the temple's trust board.
All the sects of priests including Brahman Nijog, Badu Nijog and Pujapanda Nijog unanimously acceded to the decision taken during the meeting.
During the course of meeting the ADM warned the servitors urging them to cooperate so that in future any kind of disturbances aimed to halt the rituals of the Lord can be prevented. “It has been decided that any such activities to disrupt the rites of Lord will not be tolerated and liable for action,” Mohanty told media persons after the meeting.
“We will take legal actions against anyone found of misconduct as per the rule of the temple. Besides, it has also been decided that henceforth any servitor trying to apprise the temple trust board about their grievance shall notify them in written before eight days. The temple authorities shall immediately try to solve the concerns of the complaining servitors,” Mohanty said.
“The administration is considering all legal aspects as to how to deal with halt of rituals in future. We have also put forward our demands as to how a complainant (servitor) shall get justice in case he lands on problems and they are also looking into that too,” Biranchi Narayan Pati, Secretary of Brahman Nijog Samiti told newsmen.
Earlier in the day, the daily rituals at 11th century shrine came to a grinding halt following a conflict between two sets of priests. The development came after the Maha Baruni Snana rituals of the Lord on Saturday which could not be performed following the dispute between the two groups of servitors. One of the groups had alleged that the administration had not clarified nor informed about the timings of the rituals in advance.