Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Niranjan Patnaik Saturday requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to conduct an audit of the jewellery in Ratna Bhandar of Srimandir and reassure that the Lord’s wealth is safe.
In a tweet, the Congress leader said, “Mr Naveen Patnaik, please understand that the recent series of events have left a deep sense of suspicion in the minds of Odias. We are concerned about the safety of Lord Jagannath’s Ratna Bhandar. We request you to conduct an audit and reassure that our Lord’s wealth is safe.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists Saturday launched Satyagraha in front of Srimandir Singhadwar, demanding CBI probe into the missing Ratna Bhandar key.
The BJP had launched statewide Janajagaran Yatra since June 11 last on the issue.
Puri unit BJP activists led by its President Pravanjan Mahapatra and prominent leaders like Krushna Chandra Jagdev, Krushna Chandra Panda and others have been sitting on dharna.
On April 4 last the District Treasury officer informed that the keys could not be traced. However, June 13 last a set of keys of temple’s Ratna Bhandar was found in the district record room.
On June 6 last the state government appointed retired High Court judge Raghubir Das as the Chairman of the Inquiry Commission to probe the missing keys of Ratna Bhandar.
The loss of original key of the ‘Bhitar Ratna Bhandar’ and the recovery of a duplicate key set of the same from the district record room has made the devotees doubtful about the safety of the Lord’s wealth.
Senior BJP leader and former law minister Biwabhusan Harichandan demanded estimation of all the ornaments and valuables kept in the Ratna Bhandar. “The Ratna Bhandar should be opened immediately and all the ornaments kept there should be evaluated. The list the ornaments and jewels found there should be compared with the list of ornaments prepared in 1978.” Notably, Harichandan was the law minister in 1978, when the inner treasury of the Puri temple was opened for last time.
‘Fresh inventory need of the hour’
Puri: The controversies over the keys to the inner chamber of Srimandir Ratna Bhandar can be put to rest only if the state government opens the shrine treasury and makes a fresh inventory of the ornaments and other precious items stored in it, opined a few servitors, devotees and intellectuals, they argued. “In order to solve all issues related to the Ratna Bhandar, the state government should take steps to open the inner chamber and make a fresh inventory of the ornaments,” said Baladev Singhari, a former member of the temple managing committee. Prabhakar Sahu, a devotee from Nayagarh, said, “People are concerned about the safe keeping of ornaments at Ratna Bhandar. Controversies surrounding the keys will die down if the fresh inventory of treasury matches with the earlier one done in 1978.”
UNI/PNN