Srimandir Arpan Rice to be Auctioned; Money Received for Temple Fund

Puri: Ten tons of ‘arpan rice’ collected from devotees during the previous BJD government will be auctioned, said Puri district Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain. This rice has become stale and is unfit for use in Mahaprasad of Srimandir in Puri.

According to the collector, a committee headed by the Sub-Collector will monitor the tender process for auctioning of the ‘arpan rice’.

In January 2024, former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged people to donate rice to the Lord before the inauguration before the inauguration of the Srimandir Parikrama project I nPuri. Under this calls around 14,000 quintals of ‘arpan rice’ was collected from across Odisha.

Out of this collected rice, only 4,000 quintals was used to prepare ‘Kanika’ and ‘Khechudi’ of the Mahaprasad’. It was distributed to the devotees free of cost.

This free distribution of Mahaprasad was stopped after the imposition of the Election Code of Conduct. With time the condition of the ‘arpan rice’ deteriorated.

Now, the state government has decided to auction off the rice through auction before it becomes completely unfit for consumption.

The funds generated from the auction of the arpan rice will be kept in the Srimandir fund, Puri district Collector said.