No Chariot-Pulling In Bhubaneswar This Year

Bhubaneswar: While Rath Yatra is just seven days away, there has been no clear indication yet from the Odisha government on how the annual festival will be conducted amid the coronavirus pandemic.

While preparations are in full swing in Puri. temple committees in Bhubaneswar have called off the chariot-pulling ritual with the administration keeping mum on the issue.

Rath Yatra is being held at more than 60 places in the Odisha capital. “We have decided to conduct the rituals and the procession inside the temple,” Baman Prasad Acharya, a member of OUAT Jagannath temple trust.

It is for the 48th year that festival is being conducted by the temple, but this time it is going to be a different affair.

“All rituals leading to the festival have so far been conducted on the temple premises. For Rath Yatra, the Lords would be taken in a procession from one place to another within the temple,” he added.