SJTA Bans Use Of Mobile Phones For Servitors & Officials Inside Puri Jagannath Temple

Puri: Officials and servitors have been prohibited from using cell phones while inside the Puri Jagannath temple. This was decided in a crucial meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTA).

As per the decision, the prohibition on mobile phones for employees, including servitors and other officials, would take effect on January 1, 2023.

Senior SJTA officials have announced the establishment of two specialised counters between the Southern and Singhadwar gates where servants and other officials may leave their cell phones before entering the Jagannath temple. The important Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee meeting, which was presided over by Puri Gajapati Maharaj Dibyasingha Deb, also approved various other concerns and ideas in addition to the ban on cell phones.

In order to establish the intended “Adarsh Gurukul,” a role-model school in Puri for the children of Sri Jagannath temple servants, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the Birla Foundation.

Shree Jagannath Bana Prakalp has already begun plantation on 3600 of the 4,000 hectares, SJTA Chief Administrator Vir Vikram Yadav informed.

“The society would receive about 32 acres of land for the Gurukul project. In order to assess the Shree Jaganath Bana Project, the members will go to the location. To meet the demand for the necessary timber, we would ask the forest department to plant 1600 acres of forest land in the name of Lord Jagannath, added Yadav.

Yadav claims that bids will be requested for performing the necessary repairs at the Gundicha temple, and the work will probably be finished by the month of April next year.