Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra on Monday alleged massive irregularities in the Jagannath Temple corpus fund and demanded that a special session of the State Assembly be convened to discuss the issue.
Citing a mention in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report of 2015, Mahapatra said Rs 100 crore of the Shree Jagannath Temple corpus fund was misappropriated by the year 2015.
He alleged that large chunk of funds meant for road construction and sourced from land selling were bungled.
“The Shree Jagannath Temple Management Act is being openly flouted by several parties,” Mohapatra alleged and wanted to know why the annual report on the temple expenditure is not being tabled in the State Assembly regularly.
He demanded that a special session of the Assembly be convened soon to discuss on the issue for which the Puri district administration, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and the law Department are responsible.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Government Chief Whip Amar Prasad Satpathy refuted Mohapatra’s demand stating that there is no need to convene a special session of the Assembly to debate the issue raised by Mohapatra.
“If the CAG has mentioned about anything about the Shree Jagannath Temple corpus fund, it would be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House. After making a thorough examination of the report, the PAC is authorised to discuss the issue in the presence of both the sides.”