New Delhi: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi along with Deputy Chief Ministers KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida met Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah here.
After taking the oath of office, it was the first visit of the Chief Minister to New Delhi, where he met the President, Vice-President, PM, and top Central Ministers to hold formal discussions. The CM has invited all these leaders to Odisha to witness the annual Rath Yatra festival.
The Chief Minister and his two deputies met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla along with Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Jual Oram, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari and Bhupendra Yadav during two days.
All the Union Ministers have promised the Chief Minister that they would extend more assistance to Odisha.
During the meeting, they discussed preparing a road map for making Odisha as a developed state by 2036, when Odisha will complete 100 years of its formation.
After having a meeting with the Team Odisha, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has informed that it was decided to run 315 special trains to and from Puri during car festival (Rath Jatra) of Lord Jagannath for smooth travel and convenience of the pilgrims from July 6 to July 19, 2024.
The Ministry of Railway will also make arrangements for the accommodation of 15,000 devotees at Puri for the festival, he said.
This year the Shree Gundicha Jatra will be celebrated for two days. Having experience from previous Rath Jatra festivals, East Coast Railway (ECoR) has planned to run special trains from different parts of Odisha and from neighboring states.
The special trains have been planned from Badampahad, Rourkela, Baleswar, Sonepur and Daspalla, Junagarh Road, Sambalpur, Kendujhargarh, Paradeep, Bhadrak, Angul, Gunupur, Bangiriposi on Shree Gundicha Jatra, the ECoR said.
Apart from this, special trains have also been planned for Sandhya Darshan, Bahuda Jatra, Suna Vesha and Adharapana Festival of Rath Jatra. These apart, ECoR has assured to run more special trains in view of rush and demands from devotees.
After the meetings, Chief Minister Shri Majhi expressed happiness and said that the cooperation of the Central Government will create a new chapter for the development of Odisha. He said that the cooperation of the Center will be very helpful in building a new Odisha, a developed Odisha.
Since taking over as Chief Minister, Shri Majhi has met thousands of people directly and solved their problems which has made him famous as a common people’s leader. His government also has earned the reputation as a people’s government.
This visit of the Chief Minister will play a very important role in the rapid development of Odisha.