Rath Yatra: Govt assigns tasks to top cops

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of annual Rath Yatra in Puri this year, the State government on Tuesday assigned different security-related duties to senior police officials.

As per reports, Additional Director General (ADG) of Police Pranabindu Acharya has been given charge of the Railway security. He will be assisted by the Cuttack Superintendent Railway Police (SRP).

The government has assigned ADG Sanjeeb Panda to take charge of overall police arrangement during the mega religious event. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Soumendra Priyadarshi and Puri SP Umashankar Das have been directed to assist Panda in overseeing the management.

Apart from assisting ADG Sanjeeb Panda, Soumendra Priyadarshi will also be in charge of supervising police arrangement inside the temple including liasioning with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and servitor nijogs for smooth conduct of rituals from Nabajauban Darshan till Niladri Bije of the festival.

Intelligence IG RK Sharma will supervise security and special branch arrangements in the pilgrim city whereas IG Special Armed Police (SAP) Amitabh Thakur will look into the traffic arrangements during the festival.
SP, CID, CB, Cuttack Madkar Sandeep Sampat and SP, STF Rahul PR have been asked to assist Amitabh Thakur in supervising traffic arrangements.

Asheet Kumar Panigrahi, IG of Police (Headquarters) has been allotted the responsibility to supervise arrangements of the crowd control management.

This apart, Arun Bothra, IG of Police (crime branch) will supervise the arrangements and crowd control within and adjacent to the cordons around the three chariots during pulling of the chariots of the Holy Trinity.

The police officers will be in charge of their new assignments from the period of Deva Snana Purnima on June 17 to Niladri Bije on July 15 in Puri.