Insurance, houses for Jagannath servitors in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 (IANS) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday said that the government will provide insurance cover and houses to the servitors of Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri.

The chief minister also announced the setting up of a school for the servitors' children.

"A model public school will be established in Puri. The school will provide free education to children of servitors. Apart from the regular curriculum, the school will also provide courses on Vedic education," he said here ahead of the Nabakalebar festival.

The government has identified 10 acres of land for establishing the school at Matitota, Puri.

The children of the sevayat community will be awarded scholarships ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.500 per month from class 1 to 10, while students pursuing technical education will get Rs.25,000 as scholarship, he said.

The chief minister said the government would provide insurance cover to 8,900 members of 1,930 sevayat families.

"The insurance cover will be up to Rs.2 lakh for seven members of a family for which Rs.60 lakh will be incurred as annual premium. Besides, the government will provide houses to landless sevayats. These houses will be provided at low cost to the sevayats," he said.

He said battery-run environment friendly cars will be commissioned soon which will ferry old people and those who are disabled from the parking space to the Jagannath temple.