post news network, Puri, July 19: The state government has spent a massive amount of money, to provide free accommodation services for the pilgrims, to facilitate viewing of the Yatra for the not-so-lucky ones, who failed to make it to the venue, by installing LED screen at many places in the city and to give first aid and other medical assistance to the devotees, and other services.
However, lack of publicity of these facilities and poor management, left many visitors in the lurch. Devotees from other parts of the country had little idea about the arrangements made in the city, especially for devotees like them. In the absence of proper dissemination of information many of the non-Oriya devotees from other states were left to wander and walk long distances in search of shelter and food.
“I came from Burdwan in West Bengal. I reached the city Friday night, but was clueless on how to get an accommodation in the city. I tried many hotels, but couldn’t get any accommodation as most of those were fully packed. My wife and I had no option, but to spend the night outside the railway station on the road, where many people were spending their nights. There were hardly any people to guide us,” said the 45-year-old
Gourav Banerjee.
Meanwhile, many, with no idea about the government’s several initiatives to ease the penance of the devotees, were angry with the way the administration was handling things. “I and two of my family members came Thursday night to the city. Due to a dearth of accommodation facility, we spent our night at the sea beach. We saw that there were accommodation facilities, with Nabakalebara villages written on them, at many places,” said M R Venkatesh, a resident of Vijaywada.
“At the beginning, we thought that these accommodations were put up by some private bodies. Only after spending a day, we came to know that those were for the public. Moreover, information in most places were written only in Oriya that the outsiders like me could not understand. The government had hardly mentioned that these were free accommodations meant only for the public,” he added.
Around midnight on Saturday, this reporter found that many people, with no clue about the amenities provided by the government, were sleeping on the sea beach. They were forced to flee when a strong wind coming from the sea woke them up. “Suddenly, around midnight a strong wind came and it brought lots of sand and dust with it. We were forced to flee to some nearby place for shelter,” said Ramnarayan Mishra, who has come from Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh.
“Some of my friends told me Sunday that 33 Nabakelbara villages were especially put up for the public. Many of us had seen these camps, but the government should understand that people will hardly understand anything from these two words – Nabakalebara villages. They should have written, in different languages that these are free accommodation for the public. That this was not done, clearly shows how the government works, without keeping in mind the ground realities and the multi-ethnicity of the country,” he added.
Many during the Rath Yatra also faced trouble in finding the best route to darshan. “I am visiting the city for the first time and I am totally unaware about the paths and the restrictions imposed on the free vehicular movement. We had heard that the tourism department would provide free maps and emergency contact numbers. But we never knew where the counters were and how we could get assistance. It would have been much better, convenient and cheaper for the government to make maps of the city and install those at the major junctions in the city,” said Amrendra Dubey from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh.
