Cremation at Swargadwar stalled ahead of Odisha’s CM visit

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Puri, Apr 18:

Now even the dead must wait for the VIPs, such an incident has happened on Sunday when the Puri Swargadwar was closed for five hours ahead of  the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s visit.

Swargadwar, literary means  ‘gateway to heaven’. According to Hindu belief, it is believed that those who are cremated here go to heaven and get salvation. Swargadwar, is in the sandy beach towards the South western corner of the town.

It is also believed that the funeral fires on this cremation ground is always burning and never put off . But this changed yesterday as since 6 am in the morning bodies were not allowed in the cremation ground by the administration.

This was due to Naveen Patnaik’s scheduled visit for offering tribute on his father and former former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik’s cemetery here on occasion of his death anniversary.

Patnaik reached Swargadwar at around 11 am and laid a wreath at Biju Patnaik’s cemetery in the presence of Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patsani, city municipality chairperson Jayant Sarangi and MLA and district planning board chairperson Sameer Ranjan Das.

It is ironical that bodies from various places in Odisha had to wait for nearly five hours for their final rites, for a VIP ceremony that did not take more than five minutes.