12-Jun-2024 10:52 PM
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Bhubaneswar, June 12 (Reporter) In a major decision the newly elected BJP government, which was sworn in on Wednesday, decided to open all four gates of Sri Jagannath temple as promised to the people during the election campaign.
Briefing the newsmen after the first cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi told the newsmen that the opening of four gates of the Sri Jagannath temple was one of the four decisions taken by the cabinet in its first meeting on Wednesday.
He said all the council of ministers would proceed to Puri tonight to visit the temple on Thursday morning to witness the "Mangal Alati" of the lords.
Majhi said during the Mangal Alati, all the council of ministers will be present in the temple, and all four gates of the temple will be opened for the devotees.
During the previous BJD government period, only the main gate of the temple was opened for the devotees, leading to a lot of resentment among the visitors who had a tough time standing in long queues to have darshan of the Lords.
In the election meetings, the BJP had promised that within the first six hours of the formation of the new government, all four gates would be opened for devotees.
The Chief Minister also said the cabinet also decided to create a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore for the development, beautification and conservation of Sri Jagannath temple and also to deal with several problems of the devotees.
He said the cabinet felt that funds should be created for Sri Jagannath temple and accordingly a budgetary provision of Rs 500 crore will be made soon to implement the scheme.
Majhi said in another decision ,as promised in the election manifesto of the party, a special policy, the Samrudha Krushak Niti, will be implemented within 100 days in which the rate of paddy procurement will be fixed at Rs 3100 per quintal and the payment will be transferred to the farmers within 48 hours through the DBT.
The Chief Minister said the Self Help Group scheme implemented by the previous BJD government for the empowerment of women in the state was faulty and said the cabinet decided to implement the Subhadra Yojana in the state within the next 100 days, under which every woman will receive a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 which can be encashed over two years...////...