President Murmu's Mayurbhanj homecoming pushed to November as cyclone threat builds

President Droupadi Murmu’s two-day visit to her home district of Mayurbhanj in Odisha has been put off by a week because of a cyclonic storm forming over the Bay of Bengal, district officials said on Saturday.

The President had been due in the district on 28 and 29 October. The visit will now take place on 4 and 5 November. The Mayurbhanj Collector said the programme had not been cancelled, only rescheduled, and that a detailed itinerary would be issued closer to the new dates.

Murmu was expected to spend time in Rairangpur, her hometown, and to visit the Maa Kichakeswari temple, which officials placed at Bahalda, and the mining town of Gorumahisani. Local development and cultural programmes had also been planned around the visit.

Officials gave the unfavourable weather forecast and safety precautions as the reason. Administrations and disaster management teams across coastal and interior Odisha have been put on alert as the weather department watches an intensifying system over the bay. The India Meteorological Department said earlier this week that it expected a depression to form by Sunday and move west-north-west, with rain possible along the Odisha coast from 27 October.

No change has been announced to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, where he is due to inaugurate the Reserve Bank of India’s new data centre and cybersecurity training institute.

The President’s visit was announced earlier this month alongside the Prime Minister’s, and Odisha’s administration had been reviewing security and logistics for both. The local programmes planned around her stay in Mayurbhanj will now move to the November dates.