LoP asks CM to allot land to all Odisha districts in Puri

Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly, Pradipta Kumar Naik on Wednesday urged the state government to allot land in favour of each district for construction of guest houses in Puri for pilgrims.

Naik made this request to chief minister Naveen Patnaik through a letter while thanking Odisha government for undertaking beautification of Puri and surroundings of Lord Jagannath Temple.

"It gives me immense pleasure to see the improvement of the pilgrim site of Puri by the state government," he said.

"It is worthy to mention here that the local devotees of all districts of Odisha frequently come to Puri for their darshan to Lord Jagannath and during festive occasions like car festival, Bahuda, Kartik Purnima, Dola Purnima, Nagarjun Bhesa, Sunabhesad and Tila Saptami," Naik said.

The poor people are unable to get a shelter in Puri for which they face immense difficulties during their pilgrimage, Naik said, adding that prior to 1959, the devotees coming to Puri were staying at the inns/houses at Batamangala owned by the 'Pandas (servitors).

They were taking the devotees to the temple with proper identity. But now most of the inns of the Pandas have been either demolished or in a damaged condition which has forced the pilgrims to either stay at hotels or return home, the BJP leader said.

"It will be better to provide a government accommodation to each devotee at Puri for smooth darshan of Lord Jagannath, which is why I think guest houses and any other accommodation at low cost has to be provided to devotees by the state government," Naik said.

"Therefore, it is requested to kindly allot half an acre of land for each district in a compact patch of land in Puri town with good guest houses in the name of the concerned district so that the devotees can comfortably stay at Puri ...," Naiks letter said.