Hundreds of devotees paid visit to centuries-old Jagannath Temple in Dhurwa locality of the Capital City on Saturday and offered their prayers to lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra after the Netradan ritual, which symbolises their return from seclusion of the almighty.
Thousands of devotees from all over Jharkhand will gather at Jagannath Temple at Dhurwa to pull the chariot of lord Jagannath. Keeping in view the recent communal tensions that has been taking place in city; the authorities are ready to avoid any untoward incident.
Ranchi city SP Aman Kumar said, “like every year, crowd management will be our major focus as the turn up of people in this festival is high. Transportation will be another major aspect that we will be focusing on but major decisions will be taken in the meeting that will be organised soon.”
On the other hand, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has already completed its work for the Rath Yatra. “We have already laid pipelines and have also assured proper water facilities during these ten days. The roads were already repaired last year and the cleaning process around the temple is being carried out from the last three days,” said Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya
A joint meeting of temple committee and other authorities was organized on June 20 to ensure proper management during the festival. The meeting was attended by officials from Police, Ranchi Municipal Corporation, Temple committee and many other departments like electricity, transport, health etc. The major decisions regarding security and transportation facilities were assured during this meeting.
The chariot of lord Jagannath is repaired by the temple committee. The repairing of the chariot started one and a half months back. “Every generation of our family has taken this pious responsibility of making of lord Jagannath’s chariot,” said Mahavir lohra, who repaired the five year old lord Jagannath’s chariot. The woods and expenses used in chariot come from charity or the temple fund.
The locality is all set for hold the Rath Mela in which people from different parts of state assemble to present their art and products. “We set up rides every year here. like every year, we are expecting good profit this year also,” said Chandi who hails from Bokaro and has come to Ranchi for the fair. Street food and local products are amongst the major attractions of this fair. Anil Prasad on whose land the fair is organized every year said, “We never ask for money from the vendors but whatever they give we accept it as charity”.