Puri temple: Orissa CM asked to join public queue

Commotion prevailed at the Sri Jagannath temple in Puri on Monday when the temple sevayats demanded that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and two other ministers stand in queue along with the general public to have darshan of the deities on January 1.

As public entry into the shrine was streamlined, with devotees asked to move in a single queue to have darshan of the deities, a section of sevayats insisted that the chief minister and other ministers also enter the temple in a queue along with the general public, official sources said.

While Patnaik was finally allowed to jump the queue, his cabinet colleagues and a ruling Biju Janata Dal MP had to finally return disappointed.

Energy Minister Suryanarayan Patra, Sports Minister Debasis Naik, BJD MP Prasanna Patsani and Assembly Speaker Maheswar Mohanty accompanied Patnaik.

The temple administration tried to persuade the sevayats to allow the VIPs to enter the shrine but they stuck to their demand resulting in commotion resulting in the metal detector being damaged, the sources said.