500 volunteers to serve devotees during Rath Yatra in Puri

PURI(KCN) :
: Ahead of Rath Yatra, International Human Rights Defenders Organisation & Indian Police Community – Puri formed a brigade of local volunteers, namely to assist police in rendering different public services to devotees.

While they will be engaged to assist Puri police in different activities from 20th-June to 3rd July-2023, their first and immediate task is to render assistance to the elderly and differently-abled devotees during the nine-day Rath Yatra, starting June 20. All of our 500 volunteers will help the elderly to negotiate the crowd and facilitate their darshan of the deities on the chariot. They will also be mobilised in streets, connecting Grand Road where the chariots would be tugged by devotees, to control crowd and regulate traffic.

“As the volunteers are also well known to the sevayats, they will help our personnel in free and unhindered movement of the sevayats during Rath Yatra. They will be deployed at strategic locations along with sufficient police personnel. Involvement of the local community would augment the public service delivery in a professional way,” said
Sri Mina Ketan Patnaik, Chairman of IHRD.

The volunteers will be trained and sensitised by Puri police on discipline, good conduct and behaviour aspects. They have been provided with uniform and identity cards of International Human Rights Defenders.
“We have inducted them as volunteers after verifying their antecedents. Keeping in view their support in the upcoming Rath Yatra, we have selected a motto for the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, said by Biswa Ranjan Sahoo, President of IHRD, GCC Country Board, International General Secretary.