Odisha: New CM announces reopening of Lord Jagannath temple from Thursday

Rs 3,100 paddy MSP to provided to farmers, Subhadra Yojana to be implemented in 100 days’ times

By Dr Rama Chandra Behera

Bhubaneswar, June 12: In a significant development, Odisha’s new BJP government on Wednesday announced that the four gates of Srimandir (also known as Jagannath Temple), the abode of Lord Jagannath at Puri, will be reopened for devotees on Thursday.

The gates were mysteriously closed for over a year now for unspecified reasons. Despite repeated demands by the opposition parties, the Naveen Patnaik government was not sitting silent over this. Devotees had harrowing times to visit the temple and standing in the queue have a darshan of Lord Jagannath and His siblings — elder brother Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra.

This decision to open the temple was taken at the first cabinet meeting chaired by the new Chief Minister Mohan Charan Mishra. The cabinet met soon after Majhi was administered oath of office as Chief Minister of Odisha by Governor Raghubar Das in the evening.

The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to create a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore for Srimandir.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal for formation of a Samrudha Krushi Committee for holistic development of farmers. The committee, among others, also suggest on execution of the BJP’s poll promise to provide Rs 3,100 minimum support price (MSP) per quintal of paddy to farmers.

The Cabinet also resolved that the much touted Subhadra Yojana which promises a cash benefit of Rs 50,000 to each woman will be provided within 100 days.

During his poll campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised opening of doors of Srimandir, implementation of Subhadra Yojana and Rs 3,100 MSP per quintal of farmers.