Berhampur: Eight hundred elderly people from Odisha left for Ayodhya and Varanasi in UP on a special train Saturday for a state-sponsored pilgrimage.
Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida flagged off the train at the Berhampur station. Among the pilgrims are 443 people from Ganjam, 119 from Nayagarh, 55 from Boudh, 72 from Gajapati and 86 from Kandhamal district.
Twenty-five government officers are accompanying them. After visiting temples and mutts in these two cities, the pilgrims will return to Berhampur March 13. It was the second such train to leave Berhampur this year under the state’s Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana. ’
The first train took another 800 pilgrims to Shirdi and Nashik in Maharashtra in January. A total of 8,000 elderly people belonging to economically disadvantaged sections will be sent on pilgrimage to Nashik, Shirdi, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Kamakhya and Dakhineswar under the scheme, officials said.
The special trains are operating from Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Balasore, they said. Besides arranging food and lodging, the government is also engaging doctors and nurses to look after the elderly persons during their journey.
