Participation Of Devotees: Two Plans Drawn Up For Puri Rath Yatra

Puri: The district administration has drawn up two plans for smooth conduct of Rath Yatra in Puri depending on participation of devotees this year.

Following second preparatory meeting on the car festival of deities of Jagannath temple, here on Friday, district collector Samarth Verma told media persons that district and police administrations have prepared elaborate plans to ensure peaceful and hassle-free celebration.

Verma said all the departments associated with the Rath Yatra submitted their plans at the meeting. They were asked to prepare two alternate action plans – one for the festival to be conducted with participation of devotees and the other without their participation like previous two years.

If the devotees are allowed to participate, the administration was expecting a turnout of 12-15 lakh people. Since they have been not been visiting Puri on Rath Yatra day to pull the chariots of the Lords, the administration was expecting their number to increase manifold this year, the collector said.

He further said as per the decision taken following vandalism of kitchen inside the temple, tender process for installation of 236 CCTV cameras has been completed. New cameras would be set up inside the temple as well as outside, while the damaged ones would be repaired. They were expecting to complete the work before the date of Rath Yatra, Verma said.

The meeting was also attended by ASI superintendent Arun Mallik and chief administrator of Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration (SJTA) Vir Vikram Yadav.

While the first preparatory meeting on upcoming Rath Yatra was held on May 5, the next one will be organised on May 20, sources said.