BHUBANESHWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday ordered a judicial probe into the missing of the key of the Ratna Bhandara of the Jagannath temple in Puri.
The report of the probe to be conducted by a retired judge of the Odisha high court will have to be submitted within three months. The probe will focus on the circumstances in which the Ratna Bhandara key has gone missing. “Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered a judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the non-availability of keys of Ratna Bhandara of Jagannath Temple, Puri,” a communication from the chief minister's office (CMO) said.
The chief minister issued the directive after a meeting with law minister Pratap Jena and chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Pradip Jena at the State Secretariat here.
The law minister said the truth will come out as the chief minister has ordered a judicial probe. Action will be taken based on the findings of the probe, he said.
It is expected that the report of the probe will be submitted to the government in August after the car festival scheduled on July 14.
However, Congress and BJP have criticised the chief minister's decision to order a judicial probe into missing of the Ratna Bhandara keys. Describing the order as a tactic to divert attention from government's failure, president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik asked the government to first take disciplinary action against the guilty. “Many commissions of inquiry have been set up during the last 18 years, but what is the result,” he said.
BJP vice-president Sameer Mohanty said instead of ordering a judicial probe, the state government should have filed a criminal case in this matter. “Missing of the keys has come to the fore since April 4, but why the government was silent till now,” he asked.
The state BJP on Sunday had sought a clarification from the chief minister on the issue. Besides, Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth in Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati had criticized the state government for its gross apathy on this issue and demanded a probe into the incident.