All 4 Gates of Puri's Jagannath Temple Now Open for Devotees, BJP Fulfills Key Promise

Puri: All the four gates of Puri’s Jagannath Temple were reopened for devotees on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. This comes a day after the proposal was passed in the Odisha Cabinet’s meeting.

CM Mohan Charan Majhi along with Puri MP Sambit Patra, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi and other leaders of the party did 'Parikrama' of the Jagannath temple.

The newly-formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state had announced plans to open all the gates of the revered shrine.

CM Majhi confirmed on Thursday that the proposal was passed in the Cabinet meeting yesterday.

CM Majhi said, "We had proposed to open all the four gates of Jagannath Temple in yesterday's cabinet meeting. The proposal was passed and today at 6:30 am, I along with my MLAs and Puri MP (Sambit Patra) attended the 'Mangala aarti'...”

He said that a fund of Rs 500 crore will be allotted for the temple management in the next state budget.

Rs 500 Crore to Be Allotted for Temple Management

“For the development of the Jagannath Temple and other works, we have proposed a fund in the cabinet. When we present the next state budget, we will allot a corpus fund of Rs 500 crores for the temple management." 

Stating that opening all the temple gates was one of the promises of the BJP’s election manifesto, the chief minister said that the devotees were facing problems due to closure of the gates. 

Why Were All 4 Gates Re-Openend?

The erstwhile BJD administration had continued keeping the four gates of the temple closed since the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving only one door to be accessed by the devotees. The gates had been closed since the Covid-19 pandemic and there were demands that all gates be opened.  

There are a total of four gates – Simhadwara (Lion Gate), Ashwadwara (Horse Gate), Vyaghradwara (Tiger Gate),and Hastidwara (Elephant Gate) – to get inside the holy shrine, out of them three were closed during pandemics. Only Simhadwara (Lion Gate) was accessible for the devotees, resulting in huge rush and long queues at the entrance. 

CM Majhi was sworn-in as the first BJP chief minister of Odisha at a ceremony in Bhubaneswar, amid the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several Union ministers and chief ministers.