Plea To Allow Wheelchairs Inside Puri Srimandir For ‘Divyangs’

Puri: The Sahaya- Red Cross Centre for Special Children organisation has urged the state government to allow wheelchair-bound devotees to witness the Trinity on Ratnasimhasana at Puri Srimandir and offer prayers from January next year.

The organisation’s secretary Mrinalini Padhi has written a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard.

She referred to November 2015, when 140 wheelchair-bound persons from Gujarat were allowed to enter the Srimandir, and requested that similar arrangements be made for ‘divyangs’.

She further suggested that children of sevayats be engaged as ‘sahayaks’ to assist people on wheelchairs inside the temple.

Notably, differently-abled devotees are only allowed to go in wheelchairs only upto the Lion’s Gate. From there on, either volunteers or relatives can carry their divyang relatives into the temple on their shoulders or arms.