Puri: Puri district Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain said that 10 tons of stale ‘arpan rice’ that has become unfit for use in Mahaprasad will be auctioned to millers or people. A committee headed by the Sub-Collector will supervise the tender process for auctioning the ‘arpan rise’.
“We will put up a tender process for the auction of the remaining ‘arpan rice’ and the money will be deposited with the temple administration,” said Puri Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain, who is also the Deputy Administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
On January 17 this year, former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the Srimandir Parikrama project (circumambulation route) and urged people to donate rice to the Lord before the inauguration. Subsequently, about 14,000 quintals of ‘arpan rice’ was collected from across Odisha. Of this, only 4,000 quintals of rice were prepared for ‘Kanika’ and ‘Khechudi Mahaprasad’ and distributed to the devotees free of cost at the four gates of the temple. After the implementation of the Election Code of Conduct, free Mahaprasad distribution program was completely stopped.
In the meantime, after the new government assumed office, it did not take a decision on how the ‘arpan rice’ would be used. As a result, a lot of rice was damaged and some of it became stale. Therefore, the state government has decided to sell the rice through auction before it is completely unfit for consumption.
The proceeds from the sale of the rice will be kept in the Srimandir fund, Puri district Collector said.
