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

The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Shree Jagannath in Puri will be held this year and servitors who have received vaccine shots and test negative for Covid-19 will be allowed to attend rituals.

This will be the second year in a row when the devotees will not be allowed to attend the celebrations due to second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Announcing the decision Odisha Special Relief Commissioner, Pradeep K Jena on Thursday 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 state 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.

"Only selective people having 48 hrs 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-19 negative and fully Vaccinated Servitors will be allowed to perform the rituals"

Similar criteria have also been followed by the police personal and officials will be deployed to conduct the Rath Yatra.

The Supreme Court on July 22, 2020, modified its earlier order and allowed the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra in Odisha's Puri to be held with the coordination of the Temple committee, State and Central government without compromising with the health issue pertaining to COVID-19.