Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is set to launch the Sri Jagannath Darshan Yojana (SJDY) soon to enable elderly and widow pension beneficiaries to visit the Srimandir in Puri for the darshan of Lord Jagannath.

In a letter to all district collectors, the Tourism Department said revised operational guidelines have been issued for the scheme. As per the guidelines, people aged between 60 and 75 years and widows up to 75 years under the pension schemes of the Centre and the State will be automatic beneficiaries. However, their consent to participate in the scheme is mandatory.

The department informed that the Director of Tourism had interacted with District Social Security Officers of all districts on January 13 and asked them to collect consent forms from beneficiaries on the pension distribution day on January 15 at the gram panchayat level. Consent is required to make the beneficiaries eligible for participation during the scheme period.

The letter noted that the collection of consent forms has not been satisfactory in most districts so far. In view of this, collectors have been requested to personally intervene and speed up the process to ensure the timely selection of beneficiaries.

The state has set a target of covering 5,000 beneficiaries in the 2025-26 financial year and 30,000 beneficiaries in 2026-27 financial year under the scheme.