No entry in Gujarat's Somnath temple sans pass

RAJKOT: Hundreds of devotees made a beeline to offer prayers at the famous Somnath temple on the first day of Shravan on Tuesday.
However, the swelling number of people since early morning led to some anxious moments with police having to intervene for crowd management.

The Somnath Temple Trust on Tuesday decided to issue entry passes to devotees outside the premises, beginning July 25.
Videos which went viral showed that the policemen had a tough time in controlling the situation after one of the persons in the queue picked up a fight with the cops.Cops then whisked him away.
Rahul Tripathi, district superintendent of police (DSP), Gir-Somnath said, “There was a queue of devotees in the hold-up area before the police frisking spot. It's a small place and when the devotees came to know that the temple was opening, they rushed to this spot. One person broke the line and thereafter misbehaved with police.”
Tripathi claimed there were around 200 devotees in the queue.
According to the tradition, devotees from surrounding villages come on foot to the temple during Shravan early in the morning.
Somanth Temple Trustee secretary, PK Lahiri told TOI: “We held a meeting of trustees, district collector and police and decided to increase the temple timing. The temple will remain open from 5:30am to 9:15pm beginning July 25. At present, the timings are from 6am to 6:30pm.”
Lahiri said they will start issuing passes to the devotees from Saturday to avoid rush. The devotees coming from other districts should get passes through our online system, he said.
As on July 21, there are 197 Covid-19 positive cases in the district.