Babadham, Basukinath priests demand removal of Covid SOP

DUMKA: The Panda Dharma Rakshini Sabha, the assocation for priests at Deoghar’s Baidyanath Dham temple, has criticised the district administration’s move to set up an ‘arghya’ at the temple premises. The arghya enables the devotees to offer water to the deity without entering the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
On Thursday, priests under the Sabha’s fold sat on a dharna to protest against the arghya system, which they say is preventing the devotees from getting a glimpse (darshan) of the deity.On Friday, priests of the Basukinath Dham temple in Dumka also followed suit and sat on a dharna demanding the removal of arghya from the temple premises.
Arghyas, a long channel made of brass, are usually set up in Baidyanath Dham temple during the Hindu month of Shravan. They facilitate devotees to offer water to Lord Shiva without entering the temple’s crammed sanctum sanctorum and thereby reducing chances of stampede.
“The arghya system is set up during Shravani Mela and other important occasions as part of the crowd control management. But now when the number of devotees has already been restricted to 200 per day, the arghya system does not hold any significance,” Kartik Nath Thakur, the general secretary of the Sabha, said.
The priests are also demanding that the devotees from across the country be allowed to visit the temple and the provision of e-passes be scrapped. They have threatened to launch an agitation if the e-pass system is not withdrawn at once.
Both Baidyanath Dham and Basukinath Dham temples, which were closed to public after the imposition of lockdown, have been opened following an order of the Supreme Court.
The apex court in its order had directed the authorities to allow a limited number of devotees from Jharkhand to visit both the temples.