By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Dr Krishan Kumar, one of the most trusted IAS Officer of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is now Chief Administrator of Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration and as well as State’s Works Secretary, got huge praise in National media for his crowd management skills during this year Rath Yatra amid COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from SJTA, and Works, Dr Kumar is too also Chairman, Puri Konark Development Authority and Chairman, Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation.
Leading weekly, openthemagazine.com, in an article under the banner of “Faith Uninterrupted”-“A pandemic lesson in crowd management from the Puri Rath Yatra,” described how Dr Kumar and his team of officials including Puri Collector Samartha Verma and SP K Vishal Singh managed the annual Rath Yatra amid close watch of judiciary and as well as general public because COVID-19 crisis.
The article written by Rahul Pandita dated August 27, 2021, said how a team of administrators led by SJTA Chief Administrator , Dr Kumar drew up a strategy that enabled a continuity of faith without compromising on COVID-19 protocol. This strategy could provide a template for other religious places to follow without the danger of a COVID-19 explosion, it argued.
“It is here that the chief administrator of the Shree Jagananath Temple Administration, Krishan Kumar, and his team stepped in. Puri was in lockdown; people who had been a part of the Yatra all their lives were crying about who was going to pull the Lord’s chariot in lockdown. It was not jingoism but a matter of faith for an entire people. We decided that our conduct would be exemplary, but we would take out the Yatra,” the article reads quoting Dr Kumar , an MBBS turned IAS officer of 2002 batch of Odisha cadre , hailing from Haryana.
How was it managed? To begin with, 200 workers involved in the making of the Rath were kept isolated at one place in what Dr Kumar calls a bio bubble. These workers build the entire Rath from scratch. Nothing is imported from elsewhere—even the nails to fix the chariot wheels are made by these workers, the article said.
Quoting Dr Kumar it said “After the Yatra, all the servitors and officials involved were tested for Covid and then again 15 days after the completion of the event. Before the Yatra, RT-PCR tests were conducted on about 10,000 people, including the servitors and officials involved in the Yatra. “Last year, there was an adrenaline rush to conduct the Yatra. This year, we had more time and hence planned it more carefully,”.
