Puri: Special arrangements will be made for darshan by specially-abled devotees during Rath Yatra this year. The decision was taken at the first coordination meeting for the conduct of Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra.
The first coordination meeting for the smooth conduct of the world famous annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings was held here today.
The meeting was chaired by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Division) Suresh Chandra Dalai.
“The first coordination meeting for Mahaprabhu’s world famous Rath Yatra was held today. Officers of various departments, sevayats, and media persons were present during the meeting and they offered their well-considered opinions. Starting from Rath Khala to logs for the construction of chariots, health, sanitation, drinking water, roads, transportation, law and order, etc were discussed in detail,” informed Dalai briefing reporters after the meeting.
Dalai said that he strongly believes that this year Mahaprabhu’s Rath Yatra will be conducted smoothly and officials of various departments have been accordingly directed.
The discussions during the meeting delved into important issues like smooth and disciplined conduct of rituals, crowd management, and services provided by various departments during the festival.
Especially, issues like health and power supply were figured out actively during the discussion.
On being asked about the Jagannath Bana Prakalpa, Dalai informed that recently he had held a meeting in this regard in which RCCF Bhubaneswar, DFOs of Nayagarh, Khordha, and Bhanjanagar (North and South) participated.
“They have been directed to prepare a database of trees across the State which is used as logs for the making of chariots. After the database is ready we won’t have much of a problem for logs for making of the chariots,” said Dalai.
He informed that work on the ongoing Shree Mandir Parikrama Project is being done at a much faster pace and he firmly believed that it will be completed before the Snana Yatra.
Special arrangements will be made on the Bada Danda (Grand Road) for darshan by differently-abled persons.
“In the first coordination meeting for the Rath Yatra held today smooth darshan by devotees starting from Snana Yatra to Niladri Vijay and traffic management, and provision of proper information to devotees coming from outside were discussed in detail. The SP has prepared a blueprint for smooth darshan by all types of devotees including differently-abled devotees,” informed Narasingha Bhol, IG (Central Range) joining the briefing for the press after the meeting.
Bhol said that selected police officers who had earlier taken part in Mahaprabhu’s Rath Yatra will be deployed.
During the Rath Yatra CCTVs will be installed in all important places for surveillance on anti-social elements and traffic management, Bhol added.
Local MLA, Health Secretary, Secretary of Law, Commissioner of Endowments, Director of Information & Public Relations, Collector, Superintendent of Police, Members of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, sevayats (servitors), intellectuals and representatives of the press took part in the discussions during the meeting.
