BHUBANESWAR : The Odisha government on Thursday constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court judge Justice Arijit Pasayat to supervise the inventory of jewellery and other valuables at Ratna Bhandar of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri.
The decision, approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, came four months after the Orissa High Court directed the state government to form a panel within 60 days from the date of when it was approached by the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee. The high court directive had come in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by former president of state BJP Samir Mohanty on the Ratna Bhandar issue.
While renowned cardiologist Ramakant Panda is the vice-chairperson of the committee, other members are Bidhubhushan Samal, former chairman-cum-managing director of Allahabad Bank, AK Sabat, chartered accountant, a representative of Puri King Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb, representative of Archeological Survey of India, four servitors - Durga Prasad Dasmohapatra, Madhav Chandra Mohapatra, Jagannath Kar and Ganesh Mekap, chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and the collector of Puri.
The chief minister’s office said the SJTA chief administrator will function as member-convenor of the committee. Official records indicate the last inventory of the Ratna Bhandar was conducted between May 13 and July 23, 1978. Although it was reopened on July 14, 1985, no updates were made to the inventory.
The then Law Minister Pratap Jena had stated in April, 2018 that the 1978 inventory had listed 12,831 bhari (bhari equivalent to 11.66gm) of gold ornaments with precious stones and 22,153 bhari of silver utensils, among other items.