Puri Rath Yatra to be held without devotees for second year in a row

Puri: Jagannath's sevayats, who perform the ritual services, join the wheels with a wooden axle during construction of three chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra, ahead of Rathyatra in Puri (PTI) — Puri: Jagannath's sevayats, who perform the ritual services, join the wheels with a wooden axle during construction of three chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra, ahead of Rathyatra in Puri **(PTI)**

1 min read . Updated: 11 Jun 2021, 09:08 AM IST Livemint, Edited By Saurabh Sharma ( with inputs from ANI )

This will be the second year in a row when the devotees will not be allowed to attend the celebrations due to Covid-19

Covid impact: The famous annual Rath Yatra of Lord Shree Jagannath in Puri will again be held without devotees due to Covid situation, according to news agency ANI. This will be the second year in a row when the devotees will not be allowed to attend the celebrations due to pandemic.

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The report says that the servitors who have received both the doses of vaccine and test negative for Covid will be allowed to attend the yatra.

On Thursday, Odisha Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep K Jena said that the Supreme Court's guidelines, which were issued last year on conducting the Rath Yatra, will be followed this year too.

However, the government has restricted the Rath Yatra to other places in the state but the rituals will be allowed to perform in the temples without any gathering.

As per the report, only selective people having 48 hours RT-PCR negative report or those who have fully vaccinated will be allowed to pull the chariots of the holy siblings and each Chariot will be pulled by not more than 500 persons.

Similarly Only Covid negative and fully vaccinated Servitors will be allowed to perform the rituals. The same criteria will also be followed by the police personal and officials to be deployed to conduct the Rath Yatra.

In July last year, the top court modified its earlier order and allowed the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra to be held with the coordination of the Temple committee, State and Central government without compromising with the health issue pertaining to Covid-19.

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