No Bidding Plan For Rath Yatra Telecast, Clarifies Shrine Body

Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Tuesday doused the controversy over its decision to invite bids for live telecast of Rath Yatra by announcing that no television channels will be denied the rights.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting of Jagannath Temple Managing Committee presided over by the Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb, chief administrator, SJTA, Pradipta Mahapatra, said the meeting took a unanimous decision on this matter.

“It has been decided that the TV channels will be asked to contribute a part of their profit to the temple fund. In this connection, the temple administration will have a meeting with the channel owners in a couple of days,” Mahapatra added.

Asked about the condition of the temple infrastructure after Cyclone Fani, he said there has been no damage to the main temple and the Neelachakra (blue wheel atop the temple), which has been confirmed by the photos taken by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) using the drone camera.

Mahapatra said the temple managing committee will have another meeting on Wednesday to decide the repair work to be taken up by the ASI after Rath Yatra.

He also informed that the Jaya Vijaya idols, which were damaged during the severe cyclonic storm on May 3, have been replaced with the new stone idols. These will be consecrated on June 16.