Puri: The loss of original key of the ‘Inner Ratna Bhandar’ of Srimandir and the recovery of a duplicate key set of the Ratna Bhandar from the district record room has raised speculation among the devotees over the safety of the lord’s wealth.
Political activists opposed to ruling Biju Janata Dal were making it an issue and even the BJP has launched it ‘Janjagaran Yatra’ from June 11 to enlighten the populace over the government’s failure to protect the Ratna Bhandar.
Many messages were going round the social media that some unscrupulous persons had plundered the lords’ wealth using the key. Loss of original key adds fuel to fire and devotees were now in doubt whether the lord’s valuables in Bhandar are intact or not.
Many senior residents have opined that since the duplicate keys have been found, the government should take immediate steps to open the Inner Ratna Bhandar and tally it with the inventory made in 1978.
If the comparison reveals loss of ornaments, the matter should be inquired by the top investigating agency and if it tallies with the inventory then all speculation would die down, they opined.
Sources in temple and official records say a detailed inventory of the ornament details in outer, inner and chalanti bhandars was made by a six member team.
The inventory of the ornaments began on a daily basis from May 13 to July 23, 1978.
Each ornament was weighed and items were recorded in about 124 pages. This is available in the temple office.
The inventory was signed by Bhimsen Gochhikar and Narasingh Dasmahapatra the two servitor representatives, Sachikant Tripathy the then additional superintendent of police, R Biswal the representative of district collector and Prahallad Rath the then temple administrator. However the valuation chart is missing. The ornaments were very big in size they stated.
The inventory reflects that there were 376 gold items weighing about 4,364 Bharies, silver ornaments 231 items weighing 14,878 bharies in the Inner Ratna Bhandar.
In outer Ratna Bhandar there were 79 gold ornaments weighing 8175 bharies and 39 numbers of silver ornaments with 4,671 bharies and in the Chalanti (daily use) Bhandar only 8 gold items with 299 bharies and 23 silver ornaments weighing 2,603 bharies.
Another research scholar on the condition of anonymity said there was no provision of keeping a duplicate key to the Ratna Bhandar with anybody or institution.
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