India News | Odisha Beefs Up Security at Puri Temple After Kitchen Vandalisation

Puri, Apr 7 (PTI) A day after arrest of a man on charges of vandalizing the earthen ovens inside the kitchen at Lord Jagannath Temple here, the Puri district administration Thursday beefed up security at the 12th century shrine, a senior official said.

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Puri district collector Samarth Verma, who is also the deputy chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), said the district police will be deployed inside the temple along with the Jagannth Temple Police (JTP) from Thurssday night.

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Verma said this after a meeting of the officials of district administration, SJTA, police department and hereditary servitors. He said the discussion was held on augmenting security in the temple as many participants pointed out that the `Chullha' vandalisation incident has exposed lacunae in the existing security arrangement.

It was decided at the meeting that all officials of police, district and temple administration will have a coordination meeting every week instead of once a month.

It was also decided that CCTV camera network would be expanded. A preliminary survey on augmentation and up-gradation of CCTV cameras has already been completed. ”We may require 135 CCTV cameras for installation inside the temple for which the locations have been identified. The CCTVs will be wireless and server-based,” Verma said.

Meanwhile, SJTA sources said that they were facing problems due to shortage of staff. The district administration has already written to the state government for recruitment of more employees under SJTA, the collector said.

Following the temple kitchen incident where a man vandalized over 40 chullhas on Saturday night, the district police started thorough checking of all devotes entering the shrine.

(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)