Jagannath Temple’s Ratna Bhandara Needs Repair: SJTA Chief

Bhubaneswar: The Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Wednesday said that the Ratna Bhandara of the temple needs repair.

“The temple administration would take necessary steps after receiving the final report from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which will submit its report within a week,” SJTA chief administrator Pradip Kumar Jena told newsmen here after an emergency meeting of the Srimandir Managing Committee presided over by the Puri Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb at the Special Circuit House here in the evening.

The meeting reviewed the inspection of the Ratna Bhandara by a 16-member team in Puri earlier in the day.

Jena said SJTA would submit an affidavit on the inspection of the Ratna Bhandara to the Orissa High Court on Thursday.

To a question on why the team did not enter into the inner room of the Ratna Bhandara, he said as the members were able to see all sides of the inner room through an iron grill, they did not feel it necessary to open the room.

“In fact, we had taken five sets of keys with us. But after we were able to see all sides through the grill, we did not open the lock of the inner room,” he pointed out.

He further informed that the meeting among other things discussed about the rights of the Jagannath temple servitors.

Asked about the status of Jagmohan, he said the temple administration would allow the devotees to enter into it very soon.

After the devotees are allowed to enter into the Jagmohan, repair work of the Nata Mandap would be taken up by the ASI, he added.