CM stress on beefing up security for upcoming Car Festival

All efforts should be made to ensure safety and security of pilgrims as well as citizen of Puri during the Car Festival, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said today in the co-ordination committee meeting organised for the upcoming festival at Puri.

As per a decision taken in the high-level meeting attended by police DG, Prakash Mishra, steps have been taken to engage 115 platoons of police force, anti-terrorist squad and special branch police to verify guests at hotels during the nine-day long festival.

This apart, it has been decided to install CCTV cameras on the Grand Road and deploy more number of lifeguards near the beach area.

"Special care has been taken to beef up security as per the threat perceptions issued by the Government of India. We will make the arrangements in a proper way so that everybody can enjoy the festival," Mishra told reporters after the meeting.

National Intelligence Bureau earlier this year had said that terrorists might target Puri Car Festival as it attracts nearly a million people. Since then, the state government has made efforts to declare the temple area of Puri as a no-flying zone.

Besides security arrangement, the chief minister discussed issues relating to health and sanitation, communication, traffic control, supply of electricity and drinking water and smooth during the festival, popularly known as Rath Yatra, on June 29.

It was also decided that the high court ruling banning climbing of devotees on the chariots will be implemented with letter and spirit. Patnaik sought the cooperation of the servitors (sebayats) to conduct the Car Festival smoothly.

"If we observe it with discipline it will enhance our prestige in the international community and for that, we need cooperation from sebayat group. I am sure the festival will be celebrated successfully with the cooperation of all concerns including the sebayats," he said. The issue of allowing devotees to climb the chariots and touch the idols during Car Festival had snowballed into a major constitutional crisis as the state government interfered in the decision of Puri Sankaracharya and partially relaxed the instruction issued by him to ban the practice perpetrated by Daitapatis, a class of servitors of the Puri temple.

Recently Puri King Divya Singh Dev, who is also the chairman of Puri temple managing committee, said non-compliance of Shankaracharya's opinion to disallow climbing of devotees on the chariots and touch deities would violate provisions of the Sri Jagannath Temple Act as well as infringe upon the constitutional guarantee of religion freedom enshrined in Article 25 and 26.