PURI: An RTI query that revealed that keys of the Bhitar Ratna Bhandar (inner treasure chamber) of the Srimandir went missing since 1970, has sparked off controversy over the posturing of the Puri and temple administration.
The RTI reply stated that on April 4 2018, the treasury office had informed the then Collector Arvind Agarwal about the missing keys. The information was obtained from the district treasury office through an RTI application filed by one Dilip Baral.
On the same date, Agarwal informed the temple managing committee that there was no record of transaction of Ratna Bhandar keys in the district treasury records since 1970. Later, he had announced in a press meet that a set of keys was recovered from the district record room in a sealed envelope with a tag ‘duplicate keys of Bhitar Ratna Bhandar’.
The information obtained from the treasury and temple office through RTI further fuels doubt since a 17-member team was formed to make an assessment of the inner Ratna Bhandar. The panel even claimed to have made an assessment from outside of the Bhitara Ratna Bhandar. If information sourced through the RTI is correct, what was the need for the team for assessment since the Collector and temple management knew that the keys were not available.