Puri: Day after taking oath and assuming the power, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi along with Deputy Chief Ministers KV Singh Deo and Prabhati Parida on Thursday offered prayers at the 12th-century temple of Lord Jagannath temple in Puri. In a big decision, all four gates of the temple that were kept closed since the COVID-19 pandemic were thrown open today for devotees.
Majhi who was sworn in as Odisha Chief Minister, BJP government in its first Cabinet meeting approved a proposal to re-open all four gates of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri early on Thursday morning and set up a corpus fund for it. He himself along with the both deputy CMs offered prayers early in mornin
Puri MP Sambit Patra, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi and other ministers and leaders of the party were also present at the temple.
Odisha CM Mohan Charan 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 for 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 crore for the temple management.”
State minister Suryabanshi Suraj said, “During the elections, we had said that we would reopen all four 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 crore has also been announced for development projects. We took the oath yesterday and we are opening the gates today.”
The previous BJD administration had continued to keep the four gates of the temple closed since the COVID-19 pandemic.