Plan to increase seats for disabled on Grand Road for Puri Rath Yatra in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The state government has decided to increase the number of seats for disabled persons on either side of the Grand Road in Puri during Rath Yatra, which is scheduled to take place on June 20. The decision was taken during a coordination meeting on Tuesday where government officials, police, servitors and locals attended to ensure a smooth conduct of the nine-day festival.
"Last year, we had set up a temporary seating facility at only one place on the Grand Road to enable the especially abled devotees to see the procession. This time, we will arrange the same seating facility at 7-8 locations throughout the 3-km stretch of the road," Puri district collector Samarth Verma said after the meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of revenue divisional commissioner (central range) Suresh Chandra Dalei.
Sources said that all temporary tents set up on the stretch will have at least 30 chairs. The police will facilitate the hassle-free entry of the differently abled devotees to the tents.
Since lakhs of devotees throng Puri to watch the procession on the Grand Road, the differently abled ones often face difficulties in navigating through the crowd for a darshan of the deities. "We cannot even enter the Jagannath Temple on regular days as the shrine does not have a ramp and hence, is not accessible for people like us.
Even though the temple administration mooted proposals several times in the past to provide facilities to persons with disabilities, no tangible result has been achieved so far. It is definitely a welcome step by the government that they have planned special arrangements for us during the Rath Yatra," Santosh Mohanty, a city-based differently abled man, said.
Meanwhile, inspector general of police (central range) Narasingha Bhol and Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh laid stress on fool-proof security measures for an incident-free Rath Yatra. "We will put in place a detailed and devotee-oriented police arrangement during the festival," Singh said.