After receiving flak for a long week from all quarters over the gross mismanagement of the Brahma Parivartan ritual of the deities of the Shree Jagannath temple at Puri, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik woke up to the reality on Monday.
In a belated damage control bid, Patnaik asked four of his young Ministers to camp at Puri from Tuesday to make sure that there are no further goof-ups in the run-up to the July 18 Rath Yatra in this Nabakalebar year.
After remaining mum for nearly a week, the Chief Minister called law Minister Arun Sahu, Housing and Urban Development Minister Puspendra Singh Deo, Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das and Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak to his State Secretariat chamber and asked them to monitor the progress of all works relating to their respective departments for the smooth conduct of the Nabakalebar Rath Yatra.
Sources said Patnaik expressed severe resentment over the mismanagement of the Brahma Parivartan of the lords. The law Minister, whose department handles the management of the Shree Jagannath temple affairs, was reportedly taken to task.
Ministers Pranab Prakash Das and Arun Sahu and Chief Administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Suresh Mohapatra were closeted discussing ways to prevent any hiccups in the Nabakalebar festival.
CM asks four Mins to camp in PuriNotably, all infrastructure projects associated with the Nabakalebar are to be completed by the June 30 deadline as was decided earlier. In the job of the Energy Department, only one out of the three substations planned for providing uninterrupted power in Puri during the Rath Yatra has been commissioned so far. Moreover, drains and other associated works remain to be completed