Bhubaneswar, June 13 : All four gates of the Jagannath temple in Puri were reopened for devotees on Thursday morning, attended by Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and his council of ministers. The reopening follows the closure of three gates since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the reopening occurring after the ‘Mangal Alati’ ritual of Lord Jagannath.
The Chief Minister, accompanied by his deputies, ministers, BJP MPs, and party leaders, visited the temple to offer prayers and conducted a ‘parikrama’ around the temple complex. “After the oath-taking ceremony, the BJP government decided on Wednesday evening to reopen all four gates of the temple. The gates were reopened at 6:30 am following the ‘Mangal Alati’ ritual,” Majhi told reporters in Puri.
The government will monitor the situation and take necessary steps to manage the flow of devotees to the shrine, according to the CM. Additionally, the Odisha government has decided to establish a Rs 500 crore corpus fund for the temple’s management, maintenance, and development, with provisions to be made in the upcoming state budget, Majhi said.
Cabinet minister Suresh Pujari mentioned that a detailed report has been requested to understand why the three gates remained closed after the pandemic. “We had the darshan of Lord Jagannath and sought his blessings to protect humankind and give us strength to serve the people of Odisha for the next five years,” he said.
Opening all temple gates was a key promise in the BJP’s election manifesto, addressing the inconvenience faced by devotees who were previously allowed entry only through the Singhadwara (Lion Gate) while the other three gates remained closed.
