Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to woo the servitors of Jagannath temple in Puri ahead of ‘Nabakalebar’ of the Trinity, the State government today announced a number of welfare schemes for the priests.

After reviewing the Nabakalebar preparedness, chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced to set up a model school in the pilgrim city for the kids of the priests. The students will be imparted Vedic education along with the general courses.

The servitors' children will be provided education free of cost there, Patnaik said, adding 10 acre of land have been earmarked for the establishment of the school.

The CM also declared scholarships ranging from Rs 100 to 500 for the students of up to Class X and up to Rs 25,000 for students studying in technical colleges.

Similarly, an insurance of Rs 2 lakh will be provided to each priest family. As many as 8,900 members of 1,930 families will be benefited under the scheme. The landless and homeless servitors will get houses at concessional rate under a housing scheme, Patnaik told mediapersons after the meeting.

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