Leader of Opposition (LoP) in State Assembly, Pradipta Kumar Naik on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urging the latter to provide land for construction of guesthouses for devotees of each district in Puri.
Praising the steps taken by the State Government for improvement and beautification of the pilgrim town, Naik stated in his letter, “It is worthy to mention here that devotees from all districts of Odisha frequently come to Puri for darshan to Lord Jagannath and during the festive occasions like Car Festival, Bahuda Yatra, Kartik Purnima, Dola Purnima, Nagarjuna Besa, Sunabesa, Tila Saptami and other occasions. They are unable to get a shelter at Puri for which they face a lot of problems.”
“It will be better to provide a Government accommodation to each devotee at Puri for a smooth darshan of Lord Jagannath.
That is why guesthouses/Bhawans and any other accommodation at a low cost has to be provided to the devotees by the Government,” he pleaded.
“It is, therefore, requested to kindly allot half an acre of land for each district in a compact patch of land in Puri town with a good guesthouse/Bhawan in the name of the concerned district so that the Tirthayatris/devotees can comfortably stay in the guesthouses/Bhawans of their respective districts at Puri like the guesthouses constructed at New Delhi for each State,” he added.