Cuttack: After a yawing gap of 34 years, the Ratna Bhandar( treasury house) of Puri Lord Jagannath Temple would be inspected next week. The Orissa high court has directed the temple administration to inspect the deities’s ornaments stored in the Ratna Bhandar. March 26 and 27.
A division bench headed by chief justice Vineet Saran ordered that representatives of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, and the amicus curie will jointly inspect the Ratna Bhandar on March 26 and 27 and report to the court whether it needs any repair work. The Orissa high court is monitoring the repair work undertaken by the ASI in the 12th century shrine since 2016, while adjudicating over a PIL seeking judicial intervention for an effective repair and renovation of the temple.
The chief administrator of the temple Pradeep Kumar Jena told the court that the newly-formed managing committee has recently decided to go for an urgent inspection of the Bhandar as it is located adjacent to the Jagamohan (prayer hall).
Precious jewellery and ornaments of the deities are kept in the Ratna Bhandar which was last inspected in 1984 and only three of its seven rooms had been opened then.