A meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) held in the premises of the temple here on Saturday decided to hike the monthly wages of the temporary employees of the shrine. While the wage of Class-III temporary employees was raised to Rs 10,400, that of Class-IV employees was increased to Rs 9,000, sources said.
SJTA officials had given an assurance for such a hike on December 17 last year to persuade the striking temporary employees to withdraw their dharna demanding higher wages and regularisation of their jobs. Their agitation had the support of the Sevayats. The SJTA meeting also approved acquisition of land belonging to mutts for widening of roads on the four sides of the temple ahead of the Nabakalebar festival during which large inflows of devotees and tourists are expected.
The compensation amount given for such acquisition would be kept in a joint account in bank in the names of the mutts and the temple. It was agreed that the interest accruing from the deposit would be spent on development of the mutts. The SJTA also discussed the three plots of land under Samagara, Malatipatapur and Sipasarubali Mouzas for establishment of a medical college at Puri. These plots would be left at the disposal of a technical committee for setting up of the medical college to choose from.
The meeting also discussed the issue of identification of the Daru (neem trees used for making idols of the deities), which would begin on March 29. It also took stock of the infrastructure development for the Nabakalebar festival of the lords to be held this year. The Gajapati king Dibyasingha Deb, who was to have presided over the meeting, however, failed to attend the meeting. It is not clear why he failed to attend the meeting though sources said he could not make it due to sudden illness of a family member. The meeting was chaired by Mahimohan Tripathy, a former Chief Administrator of the temple and presently a senior member of the SJTA.
SJTA Chief Administrator Bikash Kumar Mohapatra, district Collector Arvind Agrawal and SP Ashish Kumar Singh also attended the meeting.