No rehabilitation or setting up of temporary cabins shall be allowed on either side of the Grand Road (Bada Danda) of Puri from the Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha Temple as the road has been accorded with the status of a National Highway.
This was ordered by the Orissa High Court here on Thursday while adjudicating a PIl. The PIl was filed by a native of Puri town stating that the Puri Municipality is contemplating to rehabilitate some local vendors by allowing them to set up temporary cabins and kiosks during the ensuing Rath Yatra. Upon a notice issued by the High Court, the Puri Municipality had filed an affidavit giving an undertaking that the National Highway would not be used in contravention to Section 30 of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Act. A Division Bench of the HC headed by Chief Justice Vineet Saran directed the municipality to abide by the undertaking given by it in the affidavit, informed the petitioner’s lawyer Prafulla Rath.