By Our Correspondent
PURI /BHUBANESWAR: On the opening of Ratna Bhandar, Chief Administrator of Shree Lord Jagannatha Temple Administration, Arabinda Kumar Padhee said, “Ratna Bhandar of the Shree Jagannatha Temple in Puri was opened today on Sunday.
The outer Ratna Bandar was opened in the beginning. All the valuables were shifted to the temporary strong room. Thereafter, we opened the inner Ratna Bhandar as well.
Padhee said ‘As per the SOP, we broke open the lock of the inner Ratna Bhandar then all the members went around the inner store of valuables. The videography recordings are only for our record purposes, not for any publicity or any media purpose.”
Padhee said, “All the ornaments of outer Ratna Bhandar have been shifted; the inner Ratna Bhandar was opened after breaking the locks. The contents of the inner Ratna Bhandar are in almirahs and chests; as shifting of contents of the inner Ratna Bhandar cannot be done and time ran out, we have decided that another day will be finalised for the shifting process.”
After completion of the repair work of inner Ratna Bhandar by ASI authorities, the valuables will again be shifted from the temporary strong room to renovated inner Ratna Bhandar where the counting and inventory work will be carried out, said SJTA Chief Administrator.
Inspection Committee Chairman Justice Biswanath Rath says, “As scheduled, we proceeded to take the blessings of Lord Jagannath and proceeded to open Inner Bhandar and Outer Bhandar. We entered the temple by 12:00 noon. We opened the Outer Bhandar, shifted all the ornaments to the scheduled place and sealed them. We have handed over the new keys to the desired persons,’
Juatice Rath added “ Thereafter we made an attempt to open the inner Bhandar, but the key did not work. As per the SoP, we broke the locks and entered. We have just visualised the position there. Since we were there for 5 hours and did not have time, we thought it was appropriate to reseal it using new locks. We have decided that we will be sitting after 5-6 days to get inside the inner Bhandar and to take stock of the ornaments. After we keep the ornaments from there to the scheduled room, we leave it vacant for the ASI people. Two sets of videography have been taken for record purposes.”
