BHUBANESWAR : The first cabinet meeting of the BJP government chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday took four major decisions that include opening of all the four gates of the Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri from June 13 (Thursday) to facilitate free flow of devotees into the shrine for seamless darshan of the Trinity.
Briefing mediapersons about the decisions, the Chief Minister said the first meeting of the council of ministers followed by the cabinet discussed about the promises made to the people in the election manifesto and set an action plan for the first 100 days.
The first decision of the cabinet, he said, was to open the four doors of the 12th century shrine on Thursday after Mangal Alati, the first ritual of the temple, in the presence of all the ministers. “Devotees were facing hardship as three gates were closed for a long time. This was creating a divide between the devotees and the God. Opening of the four gates will ensure smooth flow of devotees into the temple,” the CM said.
Currently, only the eastern gate or Simhadwar is open for entry of the devotees. Post Covid pandemic, restrictions were imposed. This was a major poll plank of the BJP in the just-concluded elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and JP Nadda had all promised to open all the four gates and take immediate measures for reinventorisation of valuables stored in Ratna Bhandar, the treasury of the temple.
Cabinet approves paddy MSP hike, Subhadra Yojana
Majhi said the state cabinet also decided to create a corpus of `500 crore for conservation, repair, renovation and management of the shrine.
The Chief Minister said the cabinet also approved the proposal to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 3,100 per quintal. “The Agriculture department has been asked to prepare guidelines and an elaborate action plan for a progressive agriculture policy within the next 100 days and submit to the government for consideration and approval,” the CM said adding, the party is going to fulfill the promises made for the empowerment of the farmers.
The BJP government felt that the schemes implemented by the previous government for empowerment of women through self help groups have failed to bring desired results. The cabinet approved the Subhadra Jojana under which cash voucher of Rs 50,000 will be provided to each women beneficiary which they can encash within two years.