Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu arrived here on a two-day trip to Odisha during which she will visit Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, besides attending other programmes.
President Murmu arrived by a special IAF plane at Biju Patnaik International Airport around 11.40 AM. Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das, Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra and DGP Sunil Bansal welcomed her at the airport.
Soon after arriving here, Shrimati Murmu left for Utkal Mandap to attend the foundation day of Jnanaprabha Mission as Chief Guest. Shrimati Murmu completed her graduation from Rama Devi Women’s College in 1979. She was conferred with an honorary degree on its first convocation after the college was upgraded to a full-fledged university.
After lunch, she will attend the second convocation of Rama Devi Women’s University. She will spend the night at Raj Bhawan.
On Saturday, Murmu is scheduled to visit Lord Lingaraj temple and then proceed towards Cuttack to inaugurate the Second Indian Rice Congress at ICAR. Then she will leave for Delhi from Bhubaneswar Airport on the same day.
Elaborate arrangements have been made in twin cities for the visit of the President.
Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said 40 platoons of police force have been deployed for the President’s visit.
According to the Blue Book rules, arrangements have been made at different places starting from Biju Patnaik International Airport. To monitor and oversee the security arrangements, 14 DCP rank officers, 47 inspector rank officers and other police officials have been engaged, he informed the media.
This is the second visit of the President to Odisha after she assumed charge of the highest office of India. She made her maiden visit to Odisha on 10-11 November, 2022. She had visited Lord Jagannath temple Puri, her alma mater and attended the civic reception and launch of Odia textbook for engineering courses.