Odisha: Assembly speaker Niranjan Pujari sets up a committee to resolve rath yatra issue

BHUBANESWAR: Amid lack of unanimity on the row over allowing devotees to climb chariots and touching the deities during Lord Jagannath's Rath yatra, an all-party meeting called by Odisha Assembly Speaker Niranjan Pujari today set up a committee to resolve the issue.

"The committee headed by Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty will talk to different stake holders and resolve the issue to ensure smooth car festival of Lord Jagannath," Law Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo told reporters after the meeting.

Besides Mohanty, the committee includes Puri MP Pinaki Mishra, Water Resources Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, chief administrator of Sri Jagannath Temple Administration Aravind Padhee and special DGP Sanjiv Marik as members while the Law Minister will function as a coordinator.

The panel will speak to stake holders like Puri King Gajapati Divyasingha Deb, members of 36 Nijogs (priest associations) and Daitapati priests to resolve the issue, he said.

As the Daitapati priests are strongly opposed to Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati's recommendation of putting a ban on allowing the devotees to climb the chariots and touching deities, the committee will specially talk to them to resolve the crisis.

The all-party meeting, perhaps the first of its kind during the BJD government, was attended by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra, BJP Legislature Party leader K V Singhdeo, CPI(M) leader Laxman Munda, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Arukh, Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy, Food and Supplies Minister Sanjay Dasburma, Law Minister and others.

The Speaker convened the meeting after members of different parties raised the issue in the Assembly. While Congress was yet to open its card on the issue, BJP has demanded implementation of Sankaracharya's views which prohibits climbing on to the chariots.

Meanwhile, a PIL was moved by an advocate and two others in Orissa High Court seeking judicial intervention in the matter and ensure smooth conduct of the annual car festival.