News Brief
Kuldeep Negi
Jun 13, 2024, 02:33 PM | Updated 02:33 PM IST
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All the four gates of of Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha have been opened for the devotees on Thursday (13 June).
Odisha Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi, along with his ministers, Puri MP Sambit Patra, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi and other leaders were present at the temple in the morning for the opening of all gates.
The newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state had announced to open all the gates of the revered shrine.
In its first cabinet meeting on Wednesday (12 June), the CM Majhi-led government approved the proposal to reopen all the gates of the holy shrine for devotees.
The doors of the temple were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Later, only the Singhadwara (Lion Gate) was opened for devotees; but Ashwa Dwara (Horse Gate), Vyaghra Dwara (Tiger Gate), Hasti Dwara (Elephant Gate) on the other sides of the temple remained shut.
Following the development, the Puri temple witnessed a huge rush and long queues in front of the Singhadwara.
Since then, devotees had been demanding the opening of the gates for smooth darshan of the Holy Trinity.
During the election campaign, BJP had promised to open all four gates of the temple and including the promise in its poll manifesto 'Sankalpa Patra'.
In the Wednesday meeting, the cabinet also announced the setting up of a corpus fund worth Rs 500 crore for the 12th-century shrine's upkeep and development.
Kuldeep is Senior Editor (Newsroom) at Swarajya. He tweets at @kaydnegi.