**Bhubaneswar:** As high tidal waves have been hitting the Puri sea beach for the last few days and advancing towards the coastline triggering panic among people, an urgent meeting was convened by the Odisha Government presided over by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday.
Notably, the meeting was scheduled for discussion on land bank for the Puri-Konark Development Authority (PKDA) while the Puri sea high tidal waves issue took priority on the agenda.
Soon after the meeting, Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal briefed media, “Everybody has taken it seriously, planning is on and in a day or two, some concrete actions will be taken”.
Regarding the land erosion caused by the sea waves, the Puri Collector said that there is need for a long term action plan to protect the villagers and further erosion of land.
“The matter was discussed today and technical experts from Water Resources Department will visit Puri in a day or two to take stock of the situation. Very soon measures will be taken up so that the Swarga Dwara stretch of land is prevented from further erosion,” he further informed.
For the immediate precautionary measures, the Puri Collector said, “Movements of people have already been restricted, adequate number of lifeguards deployed and people are being warned not to venture into the sea”.
Need to be mentioned, high tidal waves have been pounding on the Puri beach for the last two days, advancing nearly 100 metres towards the coastline, triggering panic among the tourists and makeshift vendors at the beach.
For the past few days, the sea waves are dangerously advancing towards the main land and posing a major threat to ‘Swarga Dwara’, the famous cremation ground of the Hindus in Puri.
