Unsafe buildings on Grand Road to be closed

PURI: The district administration will form a task force, comprising an engineer, an officer from the local civic body and police personnel, to ensure closure of 11 unsafe buildings on both sides of the Grand Road during the Rath Yatra. This was decided at the third preparatory meeting  of the annual festival on Monday. No pilgrims would be allowed to sit on any of these unsafe buildings to witness the Rath Yatra. It had earlier come to the administration’s notice that most of the house-owners use these buildings to make money. They let out these buildings to devotees. Any violation would be dealt with heavy hand. The Trinity will go on a nine-day sojourn on June 21.The meeting was presided over by Law Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh. The final preparatory meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. It was decided that cattle will be taken away from the road and Panchayati Raj Minister Maheswar Mohanty said steps would be taken for prohibiting sale of non-vegetarian items on the Grand Road.Measures would be taken to free the Grand Road of encroachments and all roadside shops will be removed.  The three wooden chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra will roll down the Grand Road, which leads to Mausima temple. On the occasion, Urban and Housing Development Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak said a master plan is being worked out to usher in a radical change in the existing sanitation system in the city while Transport Minister Sanjib Sahoo said more number of city buses would ply to Puri from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. He added that a heavy duty crane would be stationed at the Puri police station to clear road blockades during the Car Festival. The Railways would run more special trains to Puri from various destinations during the fete. The meeting, among other things, discussed uninterrupted supply of power, drinking water, essential commodities, illumination of the entire city, installation of close circuit cameras along the Grand Road, deployment of life guards along the beach, better sanitation and health measures and timely completion of all the works before the fete. The preparatory meet was attended by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (central) Arabinda Padhee, IGP Sunil Ray, District Magistrate Aravind Agarwal, SP Anup Sahoo and temple servitors. The festival is expected to draw a crowd of 10 lakh devotees this year.