Kolhapur villagers hold protest to remove Jyotiba temple priests

Kolhapur: Thousands of residents from Parite and surrounding villages of Karvir tehsil held a protest march on Monday morning from Dasara Chowk to the district collectorate, demanding removal of priests from Jyotiba temple.The devotees from Parite village had gone to Jyotiba temple with "Sasankathi" on March 22 when they got into an altercation with the priests. What ensued was a clash between them. Both sides registered complaints against each other and police booked 17 people from each side.A day after the FIR was registered, Parite village was shut down for a day, while shops around the temple were closed after a call was made by the priests.Monday's march was taken out by the villagers despite the district administration requesting them to refrain from it. The annual pilgrimage to Jyotiba temple has started and April 1 is the main day of the march."The FIR against the devotees from our village is wrong since they were beaten up badly by the priests. We are not against the entire priest community from the temple, but many who took part in the violent act should be sacked by the administration and govt should appoint the priests similar to the appointments made at Pandharpur's Vitthal-Rukhmini temple. Not just this incident, priests are also troubling the devotees coming from across the state," Vijay alias Manoj Dhondiram Patil, sarpanch of Parite village, said.The villagers participated in the protest march with placards with messages demanding removal of the priests.Rahul Patil, Shiv Sena leader from Karvir tehsil, has extended his support to the demands and was also present during the march. District collector Amol Yedge assured the delegation of the protesters that he will study the issue and take appropriate action as per the findings so that such an incident never happens at Jyotiba temple.Use of artificial intelligence in Jyotiba YatraMeanwhile, district collector and administrator of Paschim Maharashtra Devasthan Samiti (PMDS) Yedge said for the first time Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be brought to use during the fair mainly to identify and restrain the criminals-on-record from troubling the devotees. "It will also be used to identify and locate missing people," he said.