SJTA to examine proposals suggested by SC through special committee

Mohapatra further said that the meeting decided to seek more time from the apex court on the abolition of hereditary service of Jagannath Temple servitors.

The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration(SJTA) has formed a special committee to examine three reform proposals suggested by the Supreme Court, its chief administrator P K Mohapatra today said.

The three proposals are donations made to servitors, hereditary practice by priests and amendment of the Sri Jagannath Temple Act, 1854, he said. The apex court had in its July 5 order made 12 proposals to be implemented by the government in the 13th-century shrine. The government was directed to submit an affidavit in this regard to it on September 5.

"The special committee will verify the three proposals as the servitors have reservations against them. The state the government has no problem in implementing the nine other proposals of the apex court," Mohapatra said after the SJTA managing committee meeting.

Mohapatra said Puri Gajapati Maharaja Divyasingha Deb will be the chairman of the special committee and the SJTA chief administrator, Puri collector and superintendent of police would be its members.

Mohapatra further said that the meeting decided to seek more time from the apex court on the abolition of hereditary service of Jagannath Temple servitors.

On one of the proposals on leasing of the temple kitchen, Mohapatra said a sub-committee has been formed to look into it.

Another sub-committee has been formed on the allotment of identity cards to the servitors and the guides who accompany the devotees to the temple, he said.

On the issue of alleged irregularities during Brahma Bibhrat, a ritual of the Nabakalebara of the deities in 2015, Mohapatra said that the meeting decided that the sub-committee will be asked to submit its report by the end of September and will be made public in October.

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