Puri, July 8 (UNI) The Odisha government will requisition officers from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to assess and enumerate the total wealth and ornaments of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, State Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan said today.
Addressing the media, Harichandan said a formal letter would be sent to the RBI, requesting the deputation of two officials to undertake the enumeration of the temple’s treasure.
Before the process begins, the ornaments will be shifted back to the original Ratna Bhandars (treasure chambers), as the conservation and repair work there has been completed, he added.
The minister further informed that a high-level meeting would soon be convened to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the enumeration process.
Once the ornaments are relocated to their original chambers, the enumeration and verification will be carried out by comparing the current inventory with the 1978 list.
The process is expected to commence in August, he stated.
Earlier, the state government had opened the Bhitar Ratna Bhandar (inner chamber) by breaking the locks, following which the entire treasure was shifted in two phases to two temporary strongrooms inside the temple premises.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which used non-invasive modern equipment and ground-penetrating radar to scan the Ratna Bhandars, had identified structural damage.
Following approval from the state government, repair and conservation work were undertaken without disrupting the daily rituals and public darshan of the deities, in accordance with the prescribed SOP.
Chief Administrator of the temple, Aravinda Padhi, recently announced that conservation and repair works in both the Bahar (outer) and Bhitar (inner) Ratna Bhandars had been completed.
He noted that the ASI expedited the work during the nine-day period when the deities were absent from the sanctum sanctorum.
The entire conservation process took nearly 333 hours over a span of 95 days, Padhi said.
