Puri: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday sought cooperation from the residents of the Holy City for smooth organisation of this year’s Rath Yatra.
“It is our duty to organise the car festival of Lord Jagannath in a proper way. The servitors of Srimandir have been cooperating with us. All devotees, coming to Puri for Rath Yatra, are our guests. We should ensure that they return home with pleasant memories,” Patnaik said while presiding over a special review meeting for Rath Yatra at the conference hall of Niladri Bhakta Niwas here.
The special review meeting started at 11.05 am and continued for 30 minutes. Officials of various departments including Public Works, Electricity, Transport and Health highlighted their preparations for the mega event.
Participating in the meeting, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief PK Mohapatra said construction work for chariots has reached its last phase and the shrine authorities are fully prepared to organise the car festival.
Puri Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) Amarendra Mohanty informed the meeting that the administration will open 29 first aid centres in the Holy City and alongside Bhubaneswar-Puri national highway for the mega event. “We would deploy at least 30 ambulances on the Grand Road, city beach and other strategic places to meet any eventuality. The district headquarters hospital (DHH) would have additional 170 beds,” he said.
The CDMO also claimed that they would bring 187 doctors and 399 paramedic staff from other districts to boost healthcare facility in the city during Rath Yatra. “At least 250 volunteers would be deployed to assist health staff. Altogether six food safety officers would check food quality in various hotels and eateries in the city,” said the CDMO.
Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) Sarat Kumar Mishra said they will ensure uninterrupted water supply to the Holy City during car festival.
Elaborating on security arrangements for Rath Yatra, Puri district Superintendent of Police (SP) Umashankar Dash said the administration will deploy 155 platoons of armed police personnel and around 1,000 police officers to maintain law and order. “We will keep the city under a three-tier security blanket. Vehicles will be thoroughly checked at the entrance points of Puri city,” Dash said.
Among others, Law Minister Pratap Jena, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash, Information and Public Relations Minister Raghunandan Das, Transport Minister Padmanabh Behera, Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, Energy Minister Dibyashankar Mishra, MP Pinaki Mishra, MLA Jayanta Kumar Sarangi, Zilla Parishad chairman Jyotirmaya Dalai, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Director General of Police RP Sharma, Inspector General of Police Soumendra Priyadarshi, Puri Collector Balwant Singh and Revenue Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar Samal participated in the meeting.
Some activists of Puri district student Congress tried to wave black flags at the Chief Minister during his visit to the city. Police detained a few of these activists at Town police station.