Govt to sponsor senior citizens' pilgrimage

Bhubaneswar: A year after announcement, the state government is scheduled to take first batch of some senior citizens on pilgrimage in July. While the government will fully bear the travel expenses of senior citizens falling under BPL category, it will fund 50% expenses of pilgrims above the poverty threshold.
Around 1,000 senior citizens from Berhampur will embark on a pilgrimage to different temples in southern India in July.Subsequently, senior citizens from Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur will go on the tour, said chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the sidelines of his review of the performance of the tourism department on Monday.
The department said the pilgrimage scheme will be implemented between July and September every year. The department is likely to take at least 3,000 senior citizens on pilgrimage this year. "We plan to include 6,000 and 9,000 senior citizens under the scheme in 2017 and 2018 respectively," an official statement said.