Odisha: Majhi govt opens all 4 gates of Puri Jagannath temple, fulfils poll promise

Odisha’s BJP government re-opened all four gates of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri on early Thursday (June 13) morning, fulfilling one of its election promises, and set up a corpus fund for immediate requirement of the 12th-century shrine.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and BJP MLAs were seen performing “Mangala aarti” at the temple at 6.30 am on Thursday.

After the reopening of the four gates of the temple, Majhi said, “We had approved the proposal to open all four gates of Jagannath Temple in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. Today at 6.30 am, we attended the Mangala aarti. For the development of the Jagannath Temple and for other works, we have proposed a fund. We will allot a corpus fund for temple management in the next state budget.”

Stating that opening all the temple gates was one of the promises of the BJP’s election manifesto, the chief minister said that the devotees were facing problems due to closure of the gates.

The previous BJD administration continued to keep three gates of the temple closed since the COVID-19 pandemic. The devotees could enter through only one gate causing a lot of inconvenience, especially for elderly people who had to wait in the queue for hours for a 'darshan'. There were demands that all the gates be opened.

For the sake of conservation and preservation of the temple, Majhi said the Cabinet decided to constitute a corpus fund of ₹500 crore to look after the issues related to the shrine.

MSP for paddy to be raised

Majhi said that the state government will also take steps to raise the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to ₹3,100 per quintal and the department concerned has been asked to take measures in this regard. A committee will be formed very soon for implementation of the proposal, he said.

This apart, a special policy "Samruddha Krushak Niti Yojana" will be framed to deal with the problems of farmers including the MSP to farmers.

“The departments have been asked to prepare a proper guideline and roadmap in this regard and present it before the government. This will be done within a span of first 100 days of the government,” the chief minister said.

₹50,000 cash vouchers for women

Majhi also claimed that efforts of the previous BJD regime for women empowerment and child welfare have failed. Therefore, the new government will implement the Subhadra Yojana within 100 days under which the women will get a ₹50,000 cash voucher each.

(With inputs from agencies)