"Ensuring better experience for devotees": Puri DM outlines preparations for Rath Yatra

Speaking about the preparations, Puri District Magistrate Dibyajyoti Parida said all departments are working together to ensure the smooth conduct of the festival and a better experience for devotees.

Preparations are underway in full swing for the Pavitra Rath Yatra in Puri, with authorities undertaking extensive arrangements through coordinated efforts involving multiple departments and agencies, while artisans engaged in the festivities described their work as a blessing. Speaking about the preparations, Puri District Magistrate Dibyajyoti Parida said all departments are working together to ensure the smooth conduct of the festival and a better experience for devotees.

"On the 16th of July, we will be having our Pavitra Rath Yatra, for which a large amount of preparation is being undertaken. There has been interdepartmental coordination among agencies, including the police, fire services, municipal corporation, district administration, executive magistrates, and all other departments. That also includes NGOs and other agencies. All of us are working in unison, and the different activities that are being planned to ensure a better experience for all the devotees are being put into action," Parida told ANI. As preparations continue, artists participating in the festival decoration expressed their joy at getting an opportunity to contribute to the celebrations.

Artist Diptiranjan Nayak said working for Lord Jagannath during the festival was a matter of great fortune. "I have been working here for about five years. People don't often get the opportunity to come and work for the Lord like this. I have been blessed with this good fortune, so I am very happy. There are many artists who don't get this chance. Since I have received this privilege, I am extremely joyful," Nayak told ANI.

Describing his emotions while creating rangoli for the festival, he said, "At home, we all do this during festivals like Raja Sankranti or any other occasion; we make rangolis in our villages and homes. But I have made this rangoli for my Lord, for my Jagannath ji. That's why I am so happy. During the upcoming Rath Yatra, the Lord will travel across this path. To be part of this, to have this experience... there can be no greater joy for us." He said the opportunity to serve during the festival filled him with emotion. "Look, I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it--that we are working here, that we've been given this opportunity. And the Lord will pass through here, swaying as He moves. How beautiful that sight will be, what a magnificent vision it will be," he added.

Meanwhile, preparations for the annual Rath Yatra in Puri are progressing with artisans, painters and servitors working round the clock on the construction and decoration of the three chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. The three chariots, which are newly built every year for the world-famous festival, have taken shape as scheduled ahead of the grand procession.

Chief Administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple, Arabinda Padhee, has said all preparations connected with the Rath Yatra are progressing smoothly and activities are being carried out according to the planned timeline. Earlier in June, Padhee had said discussions with servitors and the temple's managing committee had been completed to ensure the smooth conduct of the festival.

"The preparations for this year's chariot festival, the Rath Yatra or the Ghosha Yatra, are going on very smoothly. We have held discussions with the servitors in the Chhatisa Nijog meeting and the managing committee meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, under the chairmanship of Gajapati Maharaj. We pray before Mahaprabhu that all the activities will go smoothly," he had said. (ANI)