Puri Rath Yatra begins today sans devotees for second year in a row

As the nine-day-long festival, Rath Yatra began in Odisha from Monday, a two-day curfew has been imposed and a total of 65 platoons of police force have been deployed across the city.
This is the second consecutive year that the state government is organising the devotee-less rath yatra due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.
The Odisha government has completely banned the presence of people at the Grand Road in front of the 12th-century shrine in Puri during the chariots procession. Only Covid-19 negative or servitors having administered both doses of the vaccine have been allowed to pull the chariots.