KalingaTV News Network
Puri: The third Coordination Committee Meeting for the upcoming Rath Yatra was held here today under the chairmanship of Revenue Minister and Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty to discuss on the progress of a slew of issues related to the festival. The Rath Yatra will be held on July 14.
Issues of health, sanitation, sewerage, drinking water, repairing of roads, power supply, law and order and illumination of the temple city were discussed during the meeting.
With the State Government making all efforts to give the tourists a seamless experience, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to run 186 special trains to the Puri. Ambulance and first aid centre would be made available at the railway station.
The administration has been directed to complete the desilting of the existing drains and construction of new drains by June 30. With the monsoon knocking on the doors, poor drainage stands as a challenge for the civic authorities.
“The different decisions taken in the meeting have an impact on the security arrangements. Already two meetings have been convened by the DGP relating to security and the first mock drill involving all the security forces will be conducted on Snana Purnima. It will be personally monitored by me,” said Soumendra Priyadarshi, Central Range IG.
Notably, Odisha police have roped in the National Security Guard (NSG) for the security during the Rath Yatra.
HUD Minister Niranjan Pujari said that as per the orders of the Revenue Minister, a senior officer and a deputy secretary will take stock of the progress in sanitation works. He will review it personally between July 10 and 11.
As large number of devotees are expected to arrive in the town, health teams accompanied by food safety commissioner have been directed to conduct raids at regular intervals and destroy the stale food. Similarly, first-aid centres will be opened at different points for disposal during emergency.
Urban Development Minister Niranjan Pujari, SJTA chief administrator Pradipta Mohapatra, Collector Arvind Agarwal, SP Sarthak Sarangi and other office bearers were present during the meeting.
Kalinga AI