Assessment of ornaments and other valuable items in the Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri’s Ratna Bhandar (treasure house) had been done in the year 1978 for the last time.
At that time, the Ratna Bhandar had gold ornaments and gems weighing 12,813 tola and one ana and silver utensils, Puja and other items weighing 22,153 tola.
Besides, the Ratnabhandar had 14 gold and silver items, which had not been weighed.
Law Minister Pratap Jena informed this in the State Assembly in response to a question of BJP MLA Dilip Ray recently.
While Ray wanted to know when the incident of keys missing came to the knowledge of the Government and did the Government do for safety of the Ratnabhandar and when ornaments’ assessment was done last time, the Minister said the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration came to know about the missing of the keys on April 4 and a list of ornaments and other items were prepared between May 13 to July 23 in 1978 for the last time.
The ornaments were categorised into three types.
While the first type of ornaments are not used at all, the second type items are used during festivals and the third type on daily basis.