Work for Puri temple Ratna Bhandar inventory likely to begin in March: Odisha minister

Bhubaneswar: Odisha minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Wednesday said an exercise to make the inventory of valuables and ornaments of Ratna Bhandar of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri is likely to begin in the first week of March.

His comment comes a day after the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) announced that the state government had already approved the 14-page standard operating procedure for the inventory work.

The last inventory of the Ratna Bhandar was conducted 46 years ago in 1978.

Speaking to reporters here, Harichandan said the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTMC), headed by Puri's Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, and the SJTA will look after the entire inventory process.

“The inventory exercise is likely to commence in the first week of March. The SJTMC will take the final decision on when to begin the process. It has to ensure that there is no disruption of daily rituals (niti) of the deities and darshan," Harichandan, the state law minister, said.

The Ratna Bhandar (treasury) inside Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri has two chambers - 'Bahar Ratna Bhandar' (outer chamber) and 'Bhitar Ratna Bhandar' (inner chamber), where Lord Jagannath's valuables and ornaments have been stored for centuries.

The Odisha High Court had, on January 27, asked the state government to complete the inventory and cross-verification within three months.

The court also ordered the state government to table the judicial commission report on the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar in the ongoing session of the Odisha Assembly.

Sources said that the state government has allocated Rs 5 crore in the budget for the inventory of Ratna Bhandar.

The SJTA decided to constitute two panels. A supervisory committee will oversee and monitor the entire exercise, and a handling committee will look after the most crucial exercise of physical inventory and appraisal of the Ratna Bhandar.

According to SJTA chief administrator Arabinda Padhee, the supervisory committee will be headed by the chief administrator. It will have two members from the previously formed high-level committee on Ratna Bhandar and one member of the Ratna Bhandar sub-committee.

The panel will oversee the entire inventory process, Padhee said. The handling committee will look after the actual audit of gems and jewellery, he said.

The panel will comprise the chief administrator, the high-level committee chairman, a servitor from the temple managing committee, four additional servitors, six empanelled goldsmiths from a public sector bank, two gemologists, two Reserve Bank of India officials, and two photographers, he said.

Padhee said only three members of the supervisory team and 10 of the handling panel will be allowed to go inside the Ratna Bhandar when the inventory exercise is carried out.

“All members will have to sign confidentiality agreements to safeguard details of the findings,” he said.

According to the SOP, the inventory of valuables at Ratna Bhandar will be carried out in the presence of a magistrate and designated temple functionaries, sources said.

Noting that no valuation of items in the Ratna Bhandar will be computed, Padhee said they will be matched with the last audited report prepared in 1978.

The entire process will be digitalised and catalogued for future use. Padhee had said on Tuesday that the SJTA reviewed the temple calendar from March to 'Niladri Bije' (the concluding ritual of Rath Yatra).

Of the next 135 days, nearly 100 days are not suitable for the inventory work due to major festivals like Rath Yatra and huge footfalls of devotees on weekends, he said.

The nine-day-long Rath Yatra festival will begin on July 16 this year. “The previous inventory in 1978 was conducted in 72 days,” Padhee, a senior IAS officer, said.