Bhubaneswar, Jan 1: Having a darshan of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra in the holy town Puri is the perfect way to usher in the New Year for many people.
Keen to begin 2014 on an auspicious note, lakhs of people from various parts of the country made long line to have a darshan of deities in his abode in the holy city.
Officials in Puri had to toil hard to mange the swelling crown from New Year eve both in the temple and on the sea beach.
To meet the exigency of extra rush of devotees on New Year’s eve, the temple administration had to keep the sanctum sanctorum open on the night of December 31.
From 11.20 pm in the night till 1 am the temple was closed down and thereafter the devotees were allowed uninterrupted to have holy darshan.
Since most of the devotees prefer to visit the temple after midnight and that eases the pressure in the morning, the temple administration had decided not to close the temple, officials said.
Temple sources said that during important occasions such as Kartik Purnima and the day prior to Rath Yatra, the sanctum sanctorum remains open round the clock.
An estimated 5 lakh devotees thronged the temple for darshan of deities the officials said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with his cabinet colloquies Kalpataru Das, Prasanna Acharya, Maheswar Moohanty and local MP Pinaki Mishra had a darshan of deities. Later they paid homage to late Biju Patnaik’s Samadhi in Swargadwar.
Security has been tightened to avoid any untoward incident.
