Pradipta Mohapatra Assumes Charge As Chief Administrator Of Puri Jagannath Temple

Puri: Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra on Friday assumed charge as the chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Puri.

The 1988-batch IAS officer took over after a darshan of the three deities inside the 12^th century shrine. The Odisha government had on Monday night appointed the senior IAS officer as the chief administrator of SJTA in place of Pradip Kumar Jena.

A notification to this effect was issued by the general administration when Jena was presiding over a meeting of the Chhatisha Nijog in the presence of Puri collector Arvind Agarwal in the Jagannath temple premises in Puri to discuss the directive of the Supreme Court depriving the temple servitors of accepting any form of donation from the devotees.

Mohapatra, who is posted as principal secretary, School and Mass Education, has been given the additional charge of SJTA chief administrator, the notification added. He was in charge of SJTA chief administrator from April 27, 2010 to May 13, 2012.

The sudden change in the temple administration has come amid the state-wide resentment over the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar of the Jagannath Temple.