Odisha CM Mohan Majhi Visits Jagannath Temple As Its All 4 Gates Open For Devotees From Today

The newly elected Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi paid obeisance to lord Jagannath at the mega temple in Puri, where all four gates were opened for devotees on Thursday. The Chief Minister, along with Puri MP Sambit Patra, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJO) leaders also performed ‘Parikrama’ of the Jagannath temple.

Addressing the media after his temple visit, Majhi said, “We had proposed to open all the four gates of Jagannath Temple in yesterday’s cabinet meeting. The proposal was passed and today at 6:30 am, I along with my MLAs and Puri MP (Sambit Patra) attended the ‘Mangala Aarti’.”

“For the development of the Jagannath Temple and other works, we have proposed a fund in the cabinet. When we present the next state budget, we will allot a corpus fund of Rs 500 crores for the temple management,” he added.

Odisha Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, who also accompanied Majhi to Puri, said that during the campaigning for Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BJP had said if it came to power, it would reopen all 4 gates.

“All four gates of the temple are going to be opened today. All members of the Council Ministers are present here. The CM is also present… A corpus fund worth Rs. 500 crores has also been announced for development projects… We took the oath yesterday and we are opening the gates today,” he said.

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Keeping its poll promise, the BJP-led government in Odisha, in its first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, decided to re-open all four entry gates of Lord Jagannath Temple at Puri for the devotees from Thursday morning.

The devotees were allowed to enter the 12th-century shrine only through the main gate as the other doors have been closed since the Covid pandemic.

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

The Chief Minister further announced that the state government will also take steps to raise the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 3100 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 to increase the MSP for paddy to Rs 3100 per quintal, 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.

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 Subhdra Yojana within 100 days under which the women will get a Rs 50,000 cash voucher each.

“The departments are told to prepare guidelines and roadmaps for the implementation of the Subhadra Yojana,” the chief minister said.