Orissa govt to restrict cordon pass during Car Festival

Puri, Jun 20 (UNI) The State Home Department has asked the Puri District Magistrate to limit the cordon and car passes for the ensuing car festival on security grounds.

Earlier, Director General of Police (DGP) Amarananda Pattnaik in a letter requested the Home secretary to restrict the issue of passes within 600 on the ground that the state police had planned to implement some special security measures during the festival.

The DGP had told the Home Secretary that presence of large number of pass holders inside the cordon of the three chariots would pose difficult situation for the police to tackle the situation in case of any eventuality.

The DGP without revealing the intended security plan had requested the administration to limit the passes.

The district administration had been issuing over 900 cordon passes to VVIPs and other dignitaries besides the media persons in clear violation of the decision taken by the high level Rath Yatra coordination committee.

The Committee had resolved to restrict the cordon passes to four hundred only.

During the last Rath yatra the administration was compelled to print more passes in the night before the fete to satisfy the political and high officials.

UNI