Worried about non-cooperation, Odisha govt announces sops for Jagannath temple servitors

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 5:

Taking note of the growing resentment among the servitors of Shri Jagannath temple (Shrimandir) in Puri against the non-fulfillment of their demands, the Odisha government today announced a series of welfare schemes for them in a bid to assuage them and ensure the smooth conduct of the ensuing Nabakalebara festival scheduled in July this year.

The announcement was made at a preparatory meeting on Nabakalebara festival, presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the Chief Minister said a model public school would be set up in Puri town where children of the servitors would be provided free education to enable them to acquire the required knowledge to ‘compete with the best’.

“Besides the regular curriculum, the school will provide courses in Vedic education. Ten acres of land has been identified at Matitota in the town for setting up of the school,” the Chief Minister said.

The government also decided to provide a monthly scholarship ranging from Rs 100-500 for the children of servitors studying in Class 1 to X while those pursuing technical education would be provided with a scholarship up to Rs 25,000, Patnaik said.

Apart from this, 8900 members of 1930 servitors’ families will be provided with an insurance cover. “The insurance cover will be up to Rs 2 lakh for seven members of a family for which Rs 60 lakh will be incurred as annual premium,” the Chief Minister said.

Besides, the government also decided to provide low cost houses to the landless and homesteadless servitors for which five acres of land has been identified in the town.

Battery run, environment friendly cars will be commissioned to ferry the old and persons with disability from the vehicle parking place to the Jagannath temple, Patnaik said.