Welfare programmes announced for servitors of Puri's Jagannath Temple

Bhubaneswar, March 13 Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced several welfare programmes for the sevayats (servitors) of the Jagannath Temple at Puri.

The state government has announced that coaching will be provided to servitors' children intending to appear in any entrance examination for professional courses, the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The servitors’ children will also get financial assistance of Rs 50,000 each for various entrance examinations, such as NEET, JEE, Civil Service etc. coaching. They will get the assistance for a maximum of three times.

The health insurance cover of the servitors and their families has also been increased from the existing Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The government also announced that an additional amount of Rs 5 lakh will be given in cases of critical illness.

The state government has provided Rs 10.85 crore to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to bear the additional expenditure to be incurred due to welfare initiatives like enhancement of insurance coverage amount, financial assistance for coaching, etc.