BJP delegation meets Puri King over opening of Jagannath Temple 'Ratna Bhandar'

Bhubaneswar: Amid a growing chorus for the opening of 'Ratna Bhandar' (treasury) of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, a delegation of the opposition BJP on Wednesday met Puri King, Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, at his residence here.

"We requested Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb to constitute a high powered committee as instructed by the High Court at the earliest so that the process for opening of Ratna Bhandar could move forward. The discussion was held in a very cordial manner," said Samir Mohanty, former state unit president of BJP. Mohanty also said Gajapati Maharaja is in favour of the opening of Ratna Bandar, the Treasury of the 12th century temple.

He said the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing committee (SJTMC) is a recommending authority and it had already recommended the state government to open the Ratna Bhandar on August 4.

He said it was the duty of the government now to take a final decision in this regard.

BJP leader and advocate Pitambar Acharya told mediapersons that the High Court has clearly directed the state government to constitute the high-powered committee and carry out inventorisation of the ornaments and other valuables within two months of the receipt of a formal request from the SJTMC.

He said more than two months have passed since the recommendation of the management committee but the state government is yet to set up the high-powered committee.

"If the government doesn't constitute the committee immediately, we will be forced to approach the High Court again," Acharya said.

The party alleged that nothing has come out of Justice Raghubir Das commission which was set up June 6, 2018 following widespread public discontent and protests by the BJP over the issue of the missing Ratna Bhandar keys.

The government has also not divulged the findings of the commission so far.

Meanwhile, the missing keys of Ratna Bhandar and the finding of duplicate keys raised suspicion among the crores of Jagannath devotees.

The temple's treasury has not opened for the last 45 years since 1978.

Meanwhile, BJD leader Nrusingha Charan Sahoo accused the opposition BJP of politicising the issue.