Devotees, who would like to have a glimpse of the holy Trinity from near the Bhitar Katha in the Shree Jagannath Temple here, would have to buy tickets.
Every day, pilgrims can have darshan of the deities, Lord Jagannath and his siblings, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra four times on the ticket system.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Temple Management Committee held under the chairmanship of its head Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb. As per the decision, nearly 60 per cent of the tickets would be sold online while 35 per cent would be sold at the temple counter and the rest five per cent would remain reserved with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
According to another decision, all the gold donated by devotees to the deities would be kept in the banks under the gold monetisation scheme, informed SJTA Chief Administrator Pradipta Mohapatra after the meeting.
“A formal decision was taken to start ticketed darshan for devotees near the Bhitara Katha. Apart from this, it was decided to keep all donations in banks under gold monetisation scheme so that an interest of 2.5 per cent can be generated,” Mohapatra said.
He further informed that a special committee has been formed to take decision on the arrangements to be made for the implementation of the ticket system.
The committee members include SJTA chief, Puri district Collector, Central Range IG, SP and some members of the Shreemandir Managing Committee. Official sources said a final decision regarding fixation of ticket rates will be taken in the next meeting of the newly formed committee.
Besides, the management also decided to return the 4.93 acres lands to the Gobardhan Peeth remained in custody of the temple.
These apart, the committee decided that companies like JSPL, Reliance, Nalco, Vedanta and other corporate houses would develop projects on their own for the temple and complete them without involvement of the temple administration.