'Some priests misbehave with women'

BHUBANESWAR: A

judicial commission

set up by the state government last year to recommend reforms in the

Jagannath Temple in Puri

expressed concern over misconduct by a section of servitors towards

women devotees

.

"During our inquiry, we found that some servitors misbehaved with a number of women inside the temple. This is a cause of concern. We will ask the state government to launch

sensitisation programmes

for servitors to improve their attitude," commission's chairman Justice B P Das told TOI on Friday.

The one-man commission said police had registered cases against, and arrested, the offending servitors. "If leniency is shown towards them, the breach of trust between god's representatives (priests) and devotees will widen," Das said.

He added that the servitors harassed devotees, mostly women, for money (dakshina). There were instances where the unruly servitors attacked devotees and attempted to snatch money, he said. The unseemly acts sent a wrong message to devotees. Such misconduct should be stopped, Das said.

During Rath Yatra last year, a number of servitors were arrested for heckling Puri district collector Aravind Agarwal when he opposed the presence of their family members of chariots. On July 21, 2013, two priests manhandled Italian Odissi dancer Ileana Citaristi on the chariot of Jagannath when she refused to pay them dakshina. Though nobody was arrested, the matter sparked resentment across the country and abroad. Some years ago, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration had imparted etiquette training to servitors to improve their behaviour towards pilgrims.