Odisha’s Puri Jagannath Temple administration on July 9 informed that akin to the previous year, this year's Ratha Yatra festival would be organised sans the participation of devotees and in strict adherence to safety protocols to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Administers of the Jagannath Temple said that the 'sevayat' testing negative for Covid-19 would be permitted to participate in the pulling of the chariots. Similar to previous year, this year too Rath Yatra will be held without devotees on July 12, 2021, as per the order of the Supreme Court and SOP issued by the Odisha Government.  Chariot pullers who test RT-PCR negative and have been fully vaccinated will be permitted to attend the yatra. Around 1,000 officials excluding police personnel will be deployed, they said

As per the Administrator, three thousand 'sevayat' and 1000 temple officials will be allowed to perform all rituals and RTPCR tests are going on at four places at Puri since July 8.

Rath Yatra is a festival associated with Lord Jagannath held at Puri annually in the state of Odisha. Earlier on Tuesday, the Apex Court rejected a batch of petitions seeking direction to conduct Rath Yatra across Odisha and not only in Puri Jagannath temple, as permitted by the Odisha State Government in its order earlier.

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