18 fall ill as Kamakhya reopens after Ambubachi

Guwahati, June 27 (UNI) As many as eighteen people were taken ill due to uspected food poisoning at Kamakhya temple, hours after the historic shrine opened to devotees after the conclusion of the Ambubachi Mela yesterday.

Kamakhya Debottar Board secretary N.K.Sarma said the eighteen traders, who had set up shops in the makeshift market at the temple precincts atop Nilachal hills here, were admitted to the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital at Panbazar this morning.

''Even though we had arranged food for the devotees and other visitors, some sixty traders who encamped in the temple premises for business purposes, appeared to have cooked their own food. That might have caused the illness,'' Mr Sarma said.

The administration had prohibited taking of food to the temple, and had arranged for the same in the premises of the shrine.

The victims were stated to be out of danger.

Around 10 lakh devotees paid obeisance to Goddess Kamakhya as the doors of the temple re-opened yesterday after the annual Ambubachi festival, the largest congregation of Shakti-woshippers.

The doors of the temple were closed from Friday, the time when the mother Goddess is believed to be undergoing her annual menstrual cycle.

UNI