Christmas & New Year: SRC Revised COVID Restrictions In Odisha To Allow BJD’s Foundation Day Events, Says BJP; Know Why

Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Saturday alleged that the Odisha government revised the Christmas and New Year restrictions, it announced on Friday in view of the Omicron threat, to accommodate the BJD’s Foundation Day celebrations on December 26.

The BJP made the allegation after the state government announced restrictions for Christmas and New Year on Friday morning but the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) revised them the same day evening.

It may be noted that the first notification, issued on Friday morning, said that the restrictions would be imposed from December 25 to January 2.

On Friday evening, however, the SRC issued a revised notification, which said that the restrictions would be imposed on December 25 and then again from December 31 to January 2. This means, the restrictions will not apply to December 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30.

The state BJP said that this has been done to ensure that the BJD’s Foundation Day celebrations, being planned in a grand way across all districts, blocks and municipal corporations of the state, are not affected.

The BJP said that with panchayat polls and elections to urban local bodies coming, the BJD doesn’t want the Foundation Day celebrations to be affected in anyway.

The party alleged that even as COVID-19 restrictions have been tweaked to accommodate the BJD’s events, there was no relaxation in restrictions on Saturday when the country celebrated the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.