Bhubaneswar, Feb 26 (PTI) Lakhs of devotees on Wednesday thronged Shiva temples across Odisha since early morning to offer prayers on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.

The police and temple authorities have made special security arrangements for each of the shrines to ensure smooth darshan for the devotees.

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Huge crowd throng to famous Shiva shrines of Odisha including at the Lingaraj temple here, Dhabaleswar temple in Cuttack, Kapilash temple in Dhenkanal, Akhandalamani temple in Bhadrak, Chandaneswar in Balasore, Huma temple in Sambalpur, Loknath temple in Puri, Harishankar temple in Bolangir and Gupteswar in Koraput district.

A large number of people queued up at Lingaraj temple here since the wee hours of Wednesday to have darshan of the Shiva Linga.

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The huge rush prompted Khurda Collector Chanchal Rana and Bhubaneswar DCP Pinak Mishra to rush to the temple as one or two devotees fainted, sources said.

Elaborate police arrangements have been made to ensure that the festival passes peacefully, said Mishra.

“We have deployed around 40 platoons of police force, and mobilised 150 officers of different ranks. Our police officers are on the job, they are deployed outside the temple and outside the temple. Special arrangements have been made for traffic and parking as well," he said.

More than one lakh devotees have already visited the shrine since morning while a huge number of devotees are still in the queue for the darshan of Lord Lingaraj, the DCP stated.

The Khurda collector said, “Huge crowd is there at the temple. We have installed CCTVs at various points outside the temple to monitor the crowd at the entrance of the temple. We hope that all will get a chance to have darshan of Lord Lingaraj.”

Meanwhile, devotees expressed concern about deployment of bouncers at Loknath temple in Puri.

Local SP Vinit Agrawal said he will examine it. He said that 11 platoons of police force including one additional SP and six DSP rank officers and 15 inspectors have been deployed at the temple to manage the crowd.

The police deployment was made late at night and smooth darshan is going on, Agrawal said.

Similarly, Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida visited the Akhandalamani temple in Bhadrak along with her colleague and Culture Minister Suryabanshi Suraj this morning.

Parida said that the government has sanctioned Rs 10 crore for development of the periphery of the Shiva Shrine and more funds will be allocated, if needed, she assured.

Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik extended Maha Shivaratri festival greetings to the people.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)