Jagannath Temple Fund To Be Kept In Nationalised Banks

Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee on Wednesday decided to keep the temple fund in nationalised banks.

Briefing mediapersons after a meeting of the committee presided over by Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Krishan Kumar said that the meeting decided to keep the temple fund in nationalized banks.

“The total temple fund amounting to Rs 600 crore kept in the YES Bank, will now be kept in nationalized banks. While the Foundation Fund of the temple will be kept in the State Bank of India (SBI), the corpus and the temple fund will be kept in three nationalized banks. “We will invite applications from the nationailsed banks and keep 50 per cent of the temple fund money in the bank, which will offer more interest against the deposit. Of the remaining 50 per cent fund, 25 per cent fund will be kept in each of the two other nationalized banks in the same principle,” he pointed out.

It may be mentioned that the temple servitors and the think-tanks had vehemently protested against the deposit of temple fund in the YES Bank in the previous meeting of the committee on December 20 last year. Following the protest, SJTA had decided to withdraw the temple fund from the YES Bank and invited tenders from 17 nationalised banks.