Puri: Two days after the Supreme Court order asking the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to disallow servitors taking money from devotees as dakshina, the temple collected over Rs 10lakh in cash from the Hundi placed inside the shrine.
Sri Mandir authorities put the collections at Rs 10,47,501 Sunday, the highest on a single day this year. The temple also collected 11.840gram gold and 92gram silver from the Hundi.
Normally, as per the recorded figures, the temple collected between Rs 2lakh and Rs 3lakh as donations from the Hundi. The collection reached around Rs 5lakh to Rs 6lakh on festive days.
It was a surprise that the temple received such big amount from the devotees as donations on a single day after the Supreme Court intervened to set matters right at the temple following a PIL. This showed possible irregularities in the handling of fund collections and recording of the same in the past.
PNN
