Puri: Shankaracharya Nischalanand Saraswati Sunday expressed concern over the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration’s (SJTA) failure to trace the key to the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar (temple treasury).
The seer asked the state government to launch a probe to find out the circumstances under which the treasury key went missing. “The state government should initiate an impartial probe into the incident,” he said.
Activists of Jagannath Sena also organised a demonstration over the issue near the shrine and sought the resignation of the Law Minister. Meanwhile, local Youth Congress activists lodged an FIR with the Singhadwar police in connection with the missing key.
Pradesh Congress president Niranjan Pattnaik, who met Saraswati Sunday, also supported a high-level probe into the incident. Earlier, many servitors and devotees had also urged the state government to take disciplinary actions against people responsible for the “missing” key.
Meanwhile, the BJP Sunday accused the BJD government of neglecting Lord Jagannath and also demanded a clarification from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the missing key of the Ratna Bhandara.
Addressing a press conferencing here, state BJP spokesperson Pitambar Acharya said, “Let the Chief Minister first tell the people of this state whether the key has been missed or not? If yes, he should clarify how and when the key of the temple’s inner treasury went missing and who is responsible for it?”
The BJD government is used to neglect Lord Jagannath and playing with the sentiments of the lakhs of devotees, he said, adding “Though the missing of the Ratna Bhandara key has come to the notice since last two months, the state government has not taken any step till date, which is unfortunate.”
“It seems that the BJD leaders are busy in passing the buck to their colleague on this sensitive issue. Though the BJD MLA Sanjay Dasburma had told the media that the law department will give a statement on this issue, there is no response from the Law Minister Pratap Jena till now,” the BJP leader said. The party warned that it would hit the streets if the CM fails to give a clarification on this issue.
When contacted, the Law Minister Jena refused to comment on the issue.
According to the proceedings of a recent meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, an expert team could not open the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar for examining its structural status April 4 due to the SJTA’s failure to trace the key.
Soon after the inspection, the temple administration had claimed that the expert team examined the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar from outside and there was no need to open its door.
Demand for probe into missing Ratna Bhandar…
Notably, the temple administration had opened the inner chamber of the temple treasury way back in 1978. As per the temple’s tradition, the SJTA was supposed to deposit the key at the district treasury soon after the inspection.
However, Collector Aravind Agrawal recently claimed that the SJTA had not deposited the key to the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar at the district treasury after the 1978 inspection.
Senior Daita servitor Binayak Das Mahapatra squarely blamed the SJTA for the missing key. “This is a serious issue. The episode clearly exposed the carelessness of the SJTA officials to store the treasury key. The state government should launch a special probe into the issue and take disciplinary action against all errant officials. All the officials who served Srimandir after 1978 must be brought under the investigation ambit,” Das Mahapatra said.
Expressing similar sentiment, Pratap Sahu, a devotee from Mahanga in Cuttack district, said, “The state government should open the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar at the earliest and enlist the ornaments and other precious items.
It should take action against officials concerned if there is any discrepancy with regards to the 1978 list.”
It is learnt that SJTA chief administrator Pradeep Jena recently sought the approval of Srimandir managing panel to break open the lock of Ratna Bhandar’s inner chamber.
However, Gajapati king Dibyasingha Deb, the permanent chairperson of the managing panel, advised the SJTA to launch another round of searches to trace the key.
“The temple managing committee may take a decision to break open the inner chamber lock in its next meeting,” said a Srimandir source.