New Delhi, June 16 (TIWN) A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court by an NGO seeking direction to stay the holding of the Rath Yatra festival, which is scheduled to commence on June 23 in Puri, Odisha.

The plea has been made by Bhubaneswar based NGO called “Odisha Vikas Parishad” with the help of advocate Ranjeeta Rohatgi contended that conducting the rath yatra would be an open bid to infect lakhs of devotees keeping in mind the increasing number of COVID-19 patients in India, with Orissa. The government of Orissa on 7th June had passed the order to keep all the religious places shut till 30th June and having rath yatra on 23rd June would be breaching of the aforementioned order, it said.  The Non-Governmental Organization said when the apex court would stop lighting of crackers during the time of Diwali keeping in view public health; it can also ask the temple and state authorities to reschedule the yearly event, which could be organized later on.  Religious heads would observe it as difficult to have the yatra later, as requested by the petitioner, as the date for the yatra is fixed according to the lunar calendar to match with a specific celestial episode. The NGO said carrying out rath yatra during this time of pandemic was fraught at the same time as Puri district now had 108 cases and the government had announced the district as a ‘high-risk zone’. 

“Looking at the seriousness of the circumstances that the state is going through, on 5th June, the chief minister of Orissa has said that the month of June is very important for Orissa and recommended the public to sternly follow the guidelines given for protection against COVID-19 and continue physical distancing,” the PIL said.