President on 6-day Odisha tour, to attend programmes in 5 districts
President Droupadi Murmu arrived on Monday on a six-day visit to Odisha during which she will attend religious and academic programmes across five districts, officials said.
President Murmu was received at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here by Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and others.
She was accorded a ceremonial welcome as different cultural troupes performed at the airport and on the way to Lok Bhavan.
According to her itinerary, she will attend programmes across Khurda, Jajpur, Balasore, Puri and Mayurbhanj districts over the next few days.
“Elaborate security arrangements have been made in all the places she will visit,” a senior police officer said, adding that special deployments have been made in Bhubaneswar, where the President will stay for four days.
After an overnight stay at Lok Bhavan, President Murmu will visit Jajpur on Tuesday to offer prayers at Maa Biraja temple and perform rituals at Navi Gaya, a sacred place for offering puja in honour of ancestors.
Public entry to the Maa Biraja temple is restricted from 5.30 am till departure of the President on Tuesday.
On Tuesday afternoon, she will attend the convocation ceremony of Fakir Mohan University in Balasore as the chief guest and proceed to Puri, where she will perform ‘pind daan’ at Swetaganga tank on Wednesday morning and visit Shree Jagannath Temple around 7.40 am.
Public visits to the 12th-century shrine is also regulated during Murmu’s visit to Puri.
Later in the day, the President will visit her home district, Mayurbhanj, where she will inaugurate a holiday home at Rairangpur, visit a Girls’ Higher Secondary School, unveil the statue of tribal leader Bhanjbir Sunaram Soren and inaugurate a sports complex.
On the final leg of her Odisha tour, the President will visit the Simlipal National Park on February 5 and spend the night there.
The visit of tourists to Similipal is also restricted for three days starting February 4 due to security reasons, a forest department official said.
Before going to Similipal, the President will attend a special programme at the Rairangpur Jagannath Temple and interact with tribal women and youth groups.
On February 6, Murmu is scheduled to attend the Black Swan Summit India, an event jointly organised by the Odisha government and the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) to discuss the impact of AI and future technology stacks on global capability centres, education, and the future of jobs in the FinTech and InsurTech sectors.
She is scheduled to leave Bhubaneswar for Chhattisgarh on Saturday, officials said.
