Former comptroller and auditor-general of India Girish Chandra Murmu has been nominated as a member of the newly constituted Shree Jagannath Temple Management Committee.
A former IAS officer of the Gujarat Cadre who was also the first lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Murmu is one among 10 members of the reconstituted governing body of the 12th-century shrine, which is headed by Puri’s titular king, Gajapati Maharaja of Puri Dibyasingh Deb.
Well-known chartered accountant A. K. Sabat has also been nominated as one of the members as per the notification issued by the law department. The new committee will see to it that reforms to improve the overall functioning of the temple are carried out smoothly.
“One of our major challenges will be augmenting the revenue of the shrine and recovering Lord Jagannath’s land encroached by people and institutions. We will also ensure that devotees have a smooth darshan of the lord during their visit to the temple,” said a member.
The Mohan Charan Majhi government had earlier faced criticism for not reconstituting the management committee of the shrine after the tenure of its members expired in September 2024.