Bereaved Naveen Stays Indoors, Pandian Visits Puri Temple

Puri: People flocked to Jagannath Temple in Puri for ‘first day, first darshan’ of the sibling deities on Wednesday and among them was Secretary to Chief Minister ( Transformation and Initiatives) V Karthikeyan Pandian.

The 5T secretary has been visiting the 12th century shrine every year on the New Year day with Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik. Following the death of his brother-in-law and internationally acclaimed publisher-editor Sonny Mehta on Tuesday, Naveen, however, is in private mourning and not celebrating the New Year.

This New Year, Pandian was accompanied by his wife and Mission Shakti Director Sujata Karthikeyan to the temple, where Puri Collector Balwant Singh and Superintendent of Police Uma Shankar Dash were present.

After the darshan, he also greeted the people of Odisha on the occasion.

The Puri temple opened at 1 am amid special arrangements for the smooth entry and exit of devotees, who thronged the Pilgrim Town in thousands on the New Year.

The Jagannath Temple has been bedecked with flowers and lights on this special occasion and hundreds of flower plants have been placed alongside the Meghanada wall to beautify the shrine. The barricades and the Lions’ Gate have been decorated with flowers and there are special facilities for senior citizens and differently-abled devotees.

The SP informed that barricades have been put up near Simhadwara (main gate) through which devotees can enter the temple in queues. They will leave the temple through the west, south and north gates.

On Monday, Naveen had dedicated the draft architectural plan of Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor to the people of Odisha. He also announced that the names of all those who have donated their land for this project will be “engraved for eternity” in the heritage corridor.

That very day the 5T Secretary had revealed that the project plan was initiated in 2016 due to the keenness and commitment of the Chief Minister. Pandian, who has been the Private Secretary to the CM since 2010-11, said after the darshan of the Lord and on his return to Bhubaneswar, the CM told him that it will be good if the development of the Jagannath Temple was taken up. From that day on, the vision for development of the Heritage Corridor Project was conceptualised.