Purusottampur: In a major relief for devotees, Ganjam Collector Saturday withdrew the ticket-based darshan of the deity at Taratarini shrine and announced free darshan.
This was stated here by Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange after he came out of a review meeting ahead of the ‘Chaitra Mangalbar’ (Tuesday) festival starting March 10. Earlier, a ticket for darshan cost Rs 2 per head.
The month-long festival culminating on ‘Mahavishuva Sankranti’ in April draws lakhs of devotees to the shrine. The devotees visit the shrine for darshan of the deity and tonsuring rituals of their children and kin.
He announced various measures for the devotees. However, the ticket price for special darshan of the deity was raised from Rs 50 to Rs 100. Devotees wishing to have special darshan of the deity will now have to pay Rs 100 per ticket as per a decision taken in the review meeting.
Kulange said arrangements are being made for advance sale of special tickets for devotees coming from far-off places at the sub-collector’s office in Chhatrapur and Berhampur. This will be announced at the next meeting of the shrine, he said. The temple and its surroundings will be specially illuminated during the festival and 15 special buses will ferry devotees from the foothill to the hilltop.
The Collector said tonsuring rituals of children and other persons will be held at a designated place on the foothill as the beautification works around the temple on the hilltop are going on.
Arrangements have also been made to provide badges to children containing their names, their parents, residential addresses so that they could be easily traced in case they go missing. This apart, the hilltop and the foothill will be kept clean, mobile toilets will be placed for hassle-free darshan of the deities. Tents will be pitched to provide sheds to devotees.
This apart, air-conditioners and air coolers will be installed at various places inside the temple and provision of drinking water will be made at various places from the foothill to the hilltop. Heavy police arrangements will be made to man traffic and law and order situation during the festival.
Chhatrapur sub-collector Priya Ranjan Prusty, Purusottampur tehsildar Arun Kumar Nayak, SDPO Seema Swain, BDO Seemanchal Mohanty, IIC Jagannath Mallick, executive engineer Tapan Kumar Panigrahi, Pramod Kumar Panda, secretary, temple trust board and others attended the meeting.
