Bhubaneswar, 15 Feb.2019: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday flagged off the 10th senior citizens’ pilgrimage trip through video conferencing from the state secretariat here.
In the 10th edition of the Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana (BNTYY), senior citizens from Berhampur have started their trip to Velankanni, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and other places.
The CM congratulated the senior citizens and wished them a happy journey. On the other hand, the senior citizens thanked the CM for fulfilling their long-pending wish of going on a pilgrimage.
On the occasion, the CM along with minister Ashok Chandra Panda, tourism secretary, tourism director and other officials offered a two-minute prayer to the CRPF jawans who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack.
Worth mention here that the Odisha government had started the pilgrimage trip in 2016.
Till the date as many as 10,0000 senior citizens from Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Titlagarh and other parts of the state have visited various religious places like Rameswaram, Varanasi, Allahabad, Rikikesh, Haridwar, Ajmer, Tirupati and other places.
The state government has also planned to include two more trains in the scheme this year.
Prasanta Patnaik