Members of the temple management committee after the meeting in Puri on Thursday. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11: The Puri Shree Jagannath Temple administration today decided to open the Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of Lord Jagannath for making an inventory of its contents.

The move follows a continuing debate over the unaccounted riches of Thiruvananthapuram’s Shree Padmanabhaswamy temple that was discovered three years ago. Its wealth was roughly estimated to be around Rs 1 lakh crore.

Puri temple chief administrator Arvind Padhee said: “For the first time, we are going to list the gold ornaments in the inventory. A committee will look after the entire process in a transparent manner.”

According to the records of the temple administration, this is for the first time that an attempt is being made to ascertain the exact amount of gold, diamonds and other jewellery in Lord Jagannath’s treasury.

Following the decision of the temple management committee, whose meeting was today presided over by the Puri King Dibya Singh Deb, a committee will be constituted to make the inventory and assess its value.

Sources said the panel would have distinguished people from all walks of life as its members.

The suna vesha (golden attire) ceremony is one of the occasions when the Puri deities put on some of their jewellery. They are adorned with gold jewellery weighing about 208kg on the occasion of suna vesha. However, no one knows the exact amount of gold and other ornaments stashed in the Lord’s Ratna Bhandar.

The state government has also written a letter to the Union ministry of tourism to allow the state to have a tableau on the Puri rath yatra during the next Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

The government has also written a letter to the Centre to put the famous tourist places of the state such as Dhauli, Sun Temple at Konrak, Puri and other places in the Incredible India map.

“As nearly 50 lakh people are likely to congregate in Puri to attend the Nabakalebar of Lord Jagannath next year, steps are being taken to promote tourism in Odisha,” said a senior official.

The temple management committee today also constituted nine sub-committees to co-ordinate all the activities related to the Nabakalebar. These committees will also look after the welfare of the servitors of the Puri temple.

In yet another major decision, the Puri district administration has issued closure notice to 12 hotels for discharging their wastewater to the sea without proper treatment.