Puri: Ramakrushna Dasmahapatra, secretary of Daitapati Nijog of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, has been served another show-cause notice, seeking explanation for his participation in the consecration ceremony of the Jagannath temple at Digha in West Bengal.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief administrator Arabinda Padhee has asked him to submit an explanation in two days from receiving the notice.
The notice mentioned that the name ‘Jagannath Dham – Digha’ was used, and a signboard to this effect was displayed during the inauguration of the temple. The participation of the senior Daitapati Sevak in the consecration ceremony despite being aware of it has created confusion among devotees regarding the traditions of Shree Jagannath Temple and has hurt the religious sentiments of countless devotees, it further noted.
Dasmahapatra has been asked to explain why he participated in the programme of a temple named ‘Jagannath Dham – Digha’ as a Shree Jagannath Temple servitor and whether he protested against the organisers at the time.
The senior servitor has been in the eye of the storm since the inauguration of the temple and his subsequent interview to TV channel of West Bengal, in which he claimed that surplus wood from the 2015 Nabakalebara was used to craft the Digha shrine idols.
After receiving an internal probe report by SJTA, Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan later dismissed this allegation with officials attributing the controversy to the servitor’s ‘slip of tongue’ in the television interview.
