Indus Valley Times

PM Modi had promised during election campaign to reopen the closed gates

By Saroj Kumar Behera

Puri (Odisha), June 13: Good news for all Jagannath devotees. The new Odisha government on Thursday reopened three of the four gates of Srimandir, the abode of Lord Jagannath, which were closed by the previous Naveen Patnaik government administration for “unexplained” reasons.

The gates reopened for devotees in the presence of newly sworn-in Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and his council of ministers.

The gates were closed in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic struck the state.

This decision to open the temple was taken at the first cabinet meeting chaired by the new Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday evening.  The cabinet had met minutes after Majhi was administered oath of office as Chief Minister of Odisha by Governor Raghubar Das in the evening.

Three gates of the temple were mysteriously closed for over a year now for unspecified reasons. Only one gate called Singha Dwar (Lion’s Gate) was open for devotees.  The three other gates – Hasti Dwar (Elephant Gate), Aswa Dwar (Horse Gate) and Byaghra Dwar (Tiger Gate) — were closed. Despite repeated demands by the opposition parties to reopen the closed gates, the previous Naveen Patnaik government was taking no action on the matter.

“Devotees had harrowing times to visit the temple and stand in the queue under extreme weather conditions to have a darshan of Lord Jagannath and His siblings —Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra,” said a devotee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh had announced during their poll campaigns in Odisha all the gates of Srimandir will be opened within six hours after the new government assumes power.

The BJP came to power in the state in the recently held assembly elections by winning 78 of the 147 seats. The majority mark in Odisha Legislative Assembly is 74.