Carpenters and servitors busy in constructing wheels for the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra ahead of the Rath Yatra festival, in Puri, Odisha. (PTI Photo)
NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has agreed to a proposal by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to install three wheels from the chariots used in the Puri Rath Yatra in the Parliament premises, news agency PTI reported. In a statement, SJTA said: “During Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s visit to Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, a proposal was given by the administration for installing three wheels of chariots of Rath Yatra in the Parliament premises. Birla has accepted the proposal.” SJTA chief administrator Arabinda Padhee, in a post on X on Friday, said: “Hon’ble Lok Sabha Speaker, accompanied by other dignitaries, visited Shree Jagannatha Temple today, seeking Mahaprabhu’s blessings. We are deeply grateful to the Hon’ble Speaker for graciously agreeing to our proposal to install one wheel each from the three sacred chariots of Ratha Jatra at a prominent location within the Parliament premises.” Birla was accompanied by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Puri MP Sambit Patra during the visit, and they were welcomed by Padhee at the Lion’s Gate of the temple on Friday. According to Padhee, the wheels of Nandighosh (Lord Jagannath), Darpadalan (Devi Subhadra), and Taladwaja (Lord Balabhadra) chariots will be sent to Delhi and installed as a symbol of Odisha’s cultural and spiritual traditions. The Rath Yatra chariots are dismantled every year after the festival. New wood is used to build fresh chariots annually, except for certain major parts, said Nandighosh chariot’s chief carpenter Bijay Mohapatra, as quoted by PTI. The dismantled parts are stored in a godown, and some, including wheels, are later auctioned. This will be the second religious and cultural installation in the new Parliament building after the Sengol, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed near the Speaker’s chair in May 2023 to mark the transfer of power at Independence.Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi installed the sacred ‘Sengol’ in the Lok Sabha chamber while inaugurating the new Parliament building in 2023. He was accompanied by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Adheenam seers handed over to PM Modi the ‘Sengol’, that was accepted by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at his residence on the night of August 14, 1947.
