BHUBANESWAR/PURI : The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee on Monday approved a budget of Rs 271.07 crore for Srimandir for the financial year 2023-24. It includes Rs 262.16 crore towards various expenses, said chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Ranjan Kumar Das. The meeting was chaired by Puri King Dibyasingha Deb.
While Rs 16.62 crore has been allocated for the Rath Yatra, rituals and administrative expenses have been pegged at Rs 37.11 crore. Similarly, Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for health insurance of servitors’ families, Rs 3.50 crore for Sevak Awas Yojana and another Rs 5.51 crore for servitors’ welfare including medicines, pension and education of their children.
The managing committee has also set aside Rs 26.08 crore for repair and maintenance of temple structures and other buildings under it. While Rs 5 crore has been allocated for the Srimandir Adarsh Gurukul, Rs 50 crore has been kept aside for the corpus fund.
An amount of Rs 45.93 crore will be spent towards salaries and remuneration of temple employees and sanitation staff besides Rs 4.55 crore to be used for operation and maintenance of Bhakta Niwas.
The temple administrator informed that the temple management has earned revenue of Rs 30 crore from its 200 quarries and stone crushers located across the state, Rs 36.5 crore from hundi and general donation, Rs 60.28 crore from corpus fund interest and Rs 50 crore from land acquisition and sale of land.
While the government has provided grants of Rs 73.14 crore, the temple management earned Rs 10.3 crore from the four Bhakta Niwas it owns and operates. The managing committee further emphasised the need for growth of revenue of the temple for smooth conduct of different activities. It decided that revenue from the temple lands and stone quarries will be increased.
Similarly, the donation system will be made online and a digital payment system will also be put in place so that devotees can scan QR codes and make donations to the temple. “To facilitate donations from NRIs and NROs and promote Jagannath culture, we are also improving our website. It will be developed in Odia language too,” Das informed.
It has also been decided to approach the state government to increase the grant-on-aid and contribute towards 50 per cent of the expenses incurred towards payment of salaries of temple employees.
As far as Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra are concerned, the temple administrator informed that servitors will be dissuaded from crowding the chariots unnecessarily so that public view of the Lords on the chariots is not disrupted. All provisions are being put in place for smooth conduct of Rath Yatra, Bahuda and Suna Besha of the deities, he added. Among others, collector Samarth Verma, SP K Vishal Singh and SJTA officials attended the meeting.
Plan outlay