Puri Rath Yatra begins amid curfew to prevent congregation of devotees

BHUBANESWAR: Rath Yatra, Odisha's biggest annual festival was celebrated without the congregation of devotees at Puri on Monday. Like last year, the government imposed curfew in Puri town to prevent any public gathering during the grand festival in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal and chief minister Naveen Patnaik among others greeted people on the occasion of the auspicious Rath Yatra.

Over 2,000 servitors, whose RT-PCR reports came negative, were allowed to perform the rituals and pull the chariots. The government allowed 500 servitors each to pull the three chariots. The festival proceedings were telecast live on TV channels.

Rituals started around 4.30am by servitors inside the shrine. It was a treat to watch the sibling deities--Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra--being taken out from the temple on to the chariots amid boisterous Pahandi procession and beating of cymbals and gongs. Scion of the erstwhile kingdom of Utkala and chairman of the Jagannath temple managing committee, Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb performed his hereditary Chhera Pahanra seva on the chariots.

Riding the bedecked chariots, the deities would start their annual sojourn to Gundicha Temple (their birthplace) by travelling 3km on Grand Road. The festival was smooth till the filing of the report. "All arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of the festival. No untoward incident has been reported," Puri district collector Samarth Verma said.