Puri: The Finance Sub- Committee of Shree Jagannath Temple Management here today prepared a budget of Rs 202 crores while it would be accorded final seal of approval in the next meeting of the managing committee. This was informed by Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief administrator Krishan Kumar soon after the crucial meeting here today.
The SJTA chief briefed media, “Today we held a meeting of Srimandir’s finance sub-committee. The draft budget for fiscal year 2021-22 was approved today and it will be accorded final seal of approval at the next meeting of temple managing committee. The exact figure of the budget is Rs 201.7 crores.” He informed, “We have made a provision of about Rs 11 crores for the annual Rath Yatra. Provision has been made for the welfare of the sebaks (servitors) in which we have included an additional provision, specifically for critical illness.
This scheme will be in the new fiscal year. This is made as the critical illness, like kidney ailment and heart disease, is not covered under insurance. In case of immediate aid for the family of the sebayats, we have allocated Rs 50
lakh for the time being subject to revision of the amount after the guidelines finalized. We have recommended for a separate sebayat welfare fund like the corpus and temple funds. Thus, Rs 5 crore will be deposited per year in the fund. It will be fixed. A corpus will be built up from it.
” He added, “In the fiscal year of 2021-22, the Adarsh Gurukul, for which about 17 acres of land has already been approved, will be built and we have completed the draft for the MoU. We hope the building construction work will begin. Rs 5 crores allocated.
Also budget has been made for the normal daily rituals.” The SJTA chief further informed, “We are trying to collect more and more donations for the maintenance of the temple. We deliberated on it threadbare today. We are making a big plan for it. We hope it would begin by the end of October this year. The devotees can donate for separate heads of expenditure.”
He also informed that the undergoing construction work of two Dharmashalas (low cost stay homes for the tourists) have neared completion. Those two will be ready for the devotees in the next financial year. A new Bhakta Niwas (also another affordable tourist home) will be constructed for which a place is being located.
The SJTA chief administrator further informed that other sources of income for the temple have to be developed. We have lots of stone quarries in Khurda district. If properly managed, good income can be sourced. A target of about Rs 8-10 crores has been planned. We are also planning to construct commercial complexes on our temple land for earning rental income.
He also informed that the fixed deposit amount of Rs 650 crore at present has been planned to be augmented to Rs 1000 crores by the Rath Yatra of 2023.
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