PURI: With the safety and security of pilgrims being of paramount importance, the police on Saturday kept devotees at arms length while they themselves pulled the chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings - Balabhadra and Subhadra - during the Rath Yatra in Puri on Saturday.Those who had hoped to get up close to the chariots, and there were many, were left crestfallen after they were denied a chance to pull the ropes - considered to bring good fortune and absolve devotees of their sins."It was my first visit to Puri and I had come to take part in the pulling of the chariot. But I was crestfallen when policemen prevented me from pulling the chariots. I could not even touch the chariots," rued Prabodh Sharma , who had come all the way from Jaipur in Rajasthan.Ramadas Achari from Sundargarh district was equally upset. "The deities were so near, yet so far. I was standing just 30 metres from the chariot of Lord Jagannath. But I could not touch the ropes as police had cordoned off the rath," Achari said.Police said that over the past few years they have not been allowing devotees to come close to the chariots to avoid stampede. "Earlier, only devotees used to pull the chariots and that would lead to chaos and stampede. Lakhs of people, including the elderly, would jostle with each other to pull the chariots or touch the ropes. We prevented them from doing so because we had to keep their safety in mind," a senior police officer told TOI requesting anonymity.On Thursday, the personnel of state police and rapid action force (RAF) conducted a mock rehearsal of pulling the chariots at the reserve police ground in Puri. Using three jeeps as chariots, the cops tied ropes to the vehicles and pulled those. "We do not want to hurt the sentiments of people. We realise their devotion. But we have been instructed to prevent any mishap," said Sanjay Lal , a RAF officer.Amid the restrictions, only a few devotees were fortunate enough to touch the ropes and pull the chariots. "A large number of devotees were seen picking up threads that had snapped from the thick and sturdy ropes from the ground after chariot pulling. I may not have been fortunate to pull the ropes. But I am lucky to have got a piece of the rope," said Sandhya Tripathy, a devotee from Balasore The temple administration used to import the coir ropes from Kerala Coir Board. But for the past nine years, the ropes are being provided by the Odisha Cooperative Coir Corporation. Each rope is 220-ft long, eight inches in diameter and weighs about 130 kg.

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