Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) is yet to fix the prices of Mahaprasad even though it had taken a decision in this regard around a year ago.
The temple administration had earlier announced that it wound release a rate chart for Mahaprasad in January this year. However, the shrine authorities have failed to keep their words on the issue.
In the meantime, the state government has recently appointed a new chief administrator for Srimandir by replacing incumbent administrator PK Mohapatra.
On the other hand, the Suar and Mahasuar servitors of Srimandir, responsible for cooking and selling of Mahaprasad, have elected their new office bearers. But, the shrine authorities have been maintaining silence on the issue of Mahaprasad price, sources said.
The SJTA had decided to fix prices for Mahaprasad at a meeting with the Suar and Mahasuar Niyog August 29, 2018. The motive was to save devotees from fleecing by some unscrupulous Mahaprasad sellers at Anand Bazar on the temple premises.
The temple administration had announced that it would fix the prices of Mahaprasad by taking into account the cost of production of the temple delicacies. It had cooked Mahaprasad separately December 4 to ascertain the cost of production of the delicacies.
Then SJTA chief administrator PK Mohapatra claimed that a rate-chart for Mahaprasad has been finalised and the temple administration would release the chart after consulting the Suar and Mahasuar servitors. However, the temple administration has so far failed to issue the rate-chart.
“The State government, the district administration and the SJTA have recently introduced several measures to improve affairs at Srimandir. The district administration has demolished several structures near the Meghanada wall to beautify the shrine surroundings. But we could not understand why the SJTA is dilly-dallying on the Mahaprasad rate-chart issue,” said a social activist.
Srimandir public relations officer Laxmidhar Pujapanda said the temple is working on the issue and it will soon issue a rate-chart for Mahaprasad.