Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday kicked off the pilgrimage tour of the senior citizens from Odisha to Haridwar and Rishikesh and wished them a hassle-free journey through video conferencing at the Lok Seva Bhawan here.
A total of 970 senior citizens from Balasore, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur and Keonjhar districts were seen off by Tourism Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi and the local MLAs at the railway station in Balasore. They are being accompanied by 30 escorts officers,
It may be mentioned here that about 12,000 senior citizens have availed the pilgrimage tour programme launched by the state government since 2016.
The programme is jointly conducted by the state Tourism Department and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
During 2019-20, three more teams will embark on pilgrimage tour. While one team will leave for Rameswar and Madurai from Berhampur in January, the second team will leave for Agra, Mathura and Brundaban from Sambalpur and third team will leave for Allahabad and Banaras from Bhubaneswar in February.
