Home Minister Amit Shah Performs Aarti At Jagannath Temple During Rath Yatra Amid Covid Curbs

After taking part in 'mangla aarti' at Lord Jagannath temple, Shah is to visit Nardipur village of Gandhinagar district to launch several schemes.

Ahmedabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, early Monday morning, visited the Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad to perform aarti before the 144th annual rath yatra of Lord Jagannath took off from the temple. 

Shah is on a three-day visit to his home state Gujarat, from July 11th to take part in a host of programmes, including the Rath Yatra. 

Jagannath Temple is all decked up ahead of Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad. Heavy security has been deployed outside the temple.

After taking part in 'mangla aarti' at Lord Jagannath temple, Shah is to visit Nardipur village of Gandhinagar district to launch several schemes.

Taking to Twitter, Shah greeted people, "Hearty greetings to all the countrymen on the auspicious occasion of Shri Jagannath Rath Yatra. May Mahaprabhu Jagannath shower his blessings on everyone and fill everyone's life with good health, prosperity and good fortune. Jai Jagannath!"

On the occasion of Rath Yatra, President of India Ram Nath Kovid greeted the people of the country.

"My warm greetings and best wishes to all the countrymen, especially all the devotees in Odisha, on the auspicious occasion of Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath. I wish that with the blessings of Lord Jagannath, the lives of all the countrymen remain full of happiness, prosperity and health", he tweeted on Monday morning. 

The Yatra celebrates the annual journey of Lord Jagannath and his two siblings from the 12th-century Jagannath Temple to Gundicha Temple, their aunt's home, some 2.5 kilometres away. 

Covid curbs for the Rath Yatra

In Ahemdabad, the Rath Yatra was devoid of the usual festive fervour and crowds due to the curfew imposed on its route to bar people from taking part in it in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of the usual cavalcade of around 100 trucks, decked up elephants, akhadas and singing troupes, this year's procession consisted of only three chariots, pulled by nearly 100 youths from the Khalasi community, and four to five other vehicles, PTI reported. To prevent people from gathering on roads for a glimpse of the deities, a curfew has been imposed on the entire 19-km route of the procession from early morning till afternoon, Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja told reporters. Aside from which, the authorities have planned to conclude it in four to five hours as against the usual time of around 12 hours.

According to the city police, around 23,000 armed personnel, including nine companies of the Central Armed Police Forces, have been deployed along the route to prevent any unwarranted situation, as the procession passes through some communally sensitive areas also.

Since people from different parts of the state would flock to the area to watch the procession, police are regulating the traffic movement on all bridges to stop people from reaching near the route. The government also appealed to people to watch the live telecast of the rath yatra on television.

Similarly, the district administration in Puri imposed a curfew from 8 PM on Sunday for two days, official sources told PTI. The administration imposed curbs across the 3-km long Grand Road from Shree Jagannath Temple to Sri Gunducha Temple where all activities excluding medical emergencies are prohibited. As many as 65 platoons (1 platoon comprise 30 personnel) were deployed for the smooth conduct of the Lord's annual festival amidst the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Puri district collector Samarth Verma said that the people are urged not to come out of their residences during the curfew period from 8 PM on Sunday till 8 PM on Tuesday and make crowd on the grand road. He said people can witness the festival on their TV sets as the government has made arrangements to give free-of-cost feed to different channels and web portals.

Pulling of the holy chariots will start at 3 pm, for which, about 8,000 people including servitors, security, SJTA officials, district administration officials, media persons, and others have undergone RT-PCR test before the festival.

Last year, people were allowed to view the procession from their roofs tops, but it was found that some hotels, lodges, and guest houses book rooms with the provision of allowing people to witness the festival from the rooftop. Even some local people were found to have invited their relatives and friends to allow them to see the festival from their houses. To avoid this, security forces will also be deployed on the rooftops of different buildings on both sides of the grand road in order to ensure that people do not congregate in large numbers to witness the festival from the residential houses, hotels, lodges, and guest houses.

All the entry points to Puri town have been sealed to ensure none can enter the grand road when the festival is going on. The prohibitory order is imposed from 9 PM on Sunday till 9 PM on Monday along the Bada Danda in order to prevent people from entering the Shree Baladevjew temple area.

A section of people had filed petitions in the Supreme Court demanding permission to hold Ratha Jatra in Kendrapara. However, the apex court refused to intervene in the decision of the state government during the pandemic situation.