PURI: The second preparatory meeting for Rath Yatra was held on Tuesday evening to review the progress of arrangements being made to conduct the festival smoothly on July 14. Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty, local civic body chief Jayant Kumar Sarangi, IGP Soumendra Priyadarshi, SP Sarthak Sarangi and temple administrator PC Hota were present at the meeting. District Magistrate Arabind Agarwal presented the preparation report. Revenue Divisional Commissioner V V Swamy conducted proceedings of the meeting. It was attended by temple servitors, senior citizens and other officials.
The high-level officials directed PHD, RD, PWD and RWSS departments and drainage and civic bodies to speed up their works. The officials also discussed the supply of continuous power, potable water and essential commodities. The members attending the meeting urged the officials to end the auto-rickshaw menace in the temple town. Over 4,000 auto-rickshaws ply in the town. However, they apparently charge exorbitant fare from the visitors.
The temple administration informed the officials that timber logs were sent to the saw mill at Khapuria and Cuttack for processing. while the construction of the three rathas was in progress. Sources said efforts were on to streamline the daily rituals of the deities.The CDMO said beds in various hospitals in the town and suburb would be increased and additional medicos and support staff would be deployed. A testing laboratory would be established at Gopabandhu Ayurveda Medical College. This apart, all drinking water sources would be disinfected.