President pays obeisance at Puri’s Jagannath temple

Puri (Odisha)

President Pranab Mukherjee today performed ‘puja’ at the famous Jagannath temple here.

The President visited the 12th century shrine on the first day of his two-day tour of the state.

Special arrangements were made for his visit at the temple which gets a large number of devotees daily, officials said.

Authorities restricted the general public from visiting the temple for some time to facilitate smooth ‘darshan’ by the President.

Mukherjee spent about half an hour in the temple which has deities of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.

Later in the evening, Mukherjee visited Puri beach to see a sand sculpture made by famous artist Sudarshan Patnaik.

The President appreciated the art named ‘world peace’ depicting the picture of Lord Buddha and other signs of peace.

“Whole world is suffering from the menace of terrorism.

The purpose of art is to make people aware about the menace of terrorism and promote peace,” Patnaik said.

PTI