Berhampur: Launching a government sponsored pilgrimage programme for senior citizens, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday flagged off a special pilgrim train at the railway station here.
The train carrying 977 senior citizens of 10 southern Orissa districts left for Rameswaram and Madurai in a nine-day tour as part of the ‘Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana’ sponsored by the government.
While the most number of pilgrims were from Ganjam (645), it was followed by Kalahandi (68), Nuapada (48), Kandhamal (40), Malkangiri (39), Koraput (23), Gajapati (22), Rayagada (19) and Nabarangpur (4) in the pilgrimage trip launched for the first time in the state, replicating the scheme in some north Indian states.
“We have made all arrangements for their safe journey,” said state’s Tourism Minister Ashok Panda who distributed travel kits to those who boarded the train.
State-owned Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for the trip, the minister said.
Besides providing free food and lodging, the government is also engaging nodal officers, doctors and nurses to look after the elderly people during their nine-day tour. After visiting Rameswaram and Madurai, they will come back to Berhampur. All the boarders in the train have also got life insurance by the IRCTC, the minister said.
Such journeys would be started from Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur soon. Around `1.88 crore would be spent in all the three trips, he added.
“The government is spending around `18,000 for each person in the project,” said tourism secretary Gagan Dhal. While the cost of BPL category people was borne by the government, others paid 50 per cent of the expenditure, officials said.
Berhampur MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik, Chhatrapur MLA Priyanshu Pradhan, Polsara MLA Srikant Sahu, Sorada MLA Purnachandra Swain, BMC Mayor K Madhavi, BDA chairman Subhas Moharana, Gopalpur NAC Chairperson M Mahalakhsmi, collector Prem Chandra Choudhury and others were present on the occasion.
‘Gopalpur to be business gateway of south Orissa’
Berhampur: The seaside town of Gopalpur would be the ‘business gateway’ of south Orissa and a major tourist hub in the state. This was stated here by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while addressing people at Gopalpur after inaugurating a bus-stand Monday.
The government is spending crores of rupees through various initiatives for the development of the port town that included setting up of an industrial park, Patnaik said.
Joining as guest of honour Gopalpur MLA and higher education minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi said the state government has added a new chapter in the field of higher education by launching the Kalinga Sikhya Sathi Yojana, an easy loan scheme for meritorious students.
Students wishing to pursue medical education will have vast opportunities as work on six medical colleges will get completed by 2017, he added.
Patnaik also laid the foundation stone of a cyclone relief centre and inaugurated an Aahaar centre. He inaugurated a home for HIV-infected orphan children, Sradha Sanjeevani, at Gopalpur.
The Chief Minister also addressed a gathering at newly inaugurated Babanpur mini stadium near Aska after laying the foundation stone of an electric grid sub-station near Aska. During his whirlwind tour, Patnaik inaugurated seven projects.
Around 50 BJP and Congress supporters were detained at various locations near here as a preventive measure for the visit of the Chief Minister to Ganjam district.
The detained persons included BJP district president Kanhu Charan Pati and district Youth Congress President Ajit Nayak. They were released after Chief Minister’s departure, police said. PNN