Puri: The inner Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of Jagannath temple in Odisha’s Puri town was opened by breaking its locks on Sunday.
Speaking to media persons outside the temple, Arabinda Padhee, chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) said the outer chamber of the Rathan Bhandar was opened with keys but the inner chamber had to be opened by breaking the locks.
Padhee was one of the 11-member monitoring committee which had gone inside the temple to open the Ratna Bhandar. “The Ratna Bhandar was opened as per the SOP of the state government. All the members of the 11-member monitoring committee were present during the opening of the outer chamber and 12 members of the committee during opening of the inner chamber. The members of both committees were present throughout the process and inspected both chambers,” he said.
“We tried to open the inner chamber with the keys provided by the collector’s office. As none of the three locks on the door of the chamber opened with the keys, we had to break it open with cutter as per the provisions of the government’s SOP,” he said.
He further said the contents of the outer Ratna Bhandar have been shifted to Changada Mekap room, a temporary strong room, after those were registered in presence of the magistrate. Then the committee members proceeded to the inner chamber.
“After the inner Ratna Bhandar was opened, the committee members inspected it. The ornaments of the Lords have been kept in almirahs and chests. As we ran out of time, we did not open those. The valuables will be shifted to the temporary strong room on the date fixed by the authorities. Since tomorrow is Bahuda Yatra, it will take some time for shifting the valuables from the inner chamber,” he added.
Justice Biswanath Rath, who heads the Ratna Bhandar monitoring committee, said the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar was closed with new locks after opening. There were no snakes or any such thing, he said adding that those are fictional depiction of films.
The teams of ODRAF and Snake Helpline, which had accompanied the 11-member inspection team into the temple for opening the Ratna Bhandar came out with their equipment.
Subhendu Mallik of Snake Helpline told the media that his team was waiting outside the Lords’ treasure. They had been instructed to go inside if their services would be needed. But they were not invited the whole day which indicated that there were no snakes inside the Ratna Bhandar, he said.
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