BHUBANESWAR, June 28, 2013: Fearing trouble during the upcoming Rath Yatra in Puri, the state government on Thursday convened a meeting with the Jagannath temple priests to listen to their grievances.

Recently, priests were angry over the temple body's plan of preventing pilgrims from touching the deities on chariots. A delegation of servitors from the 12th century shrine met chief secretary B K Patnaik at the secretariat and urged him to scrap the plan. Jagannath temple's chief administrator Arvind Padhee and law minister Maheswar Mohanty were present in the meeting.

"The chief secretary assured us that pilgrims would not be prevented from touching the deities on chariots. The meeting was fruitful," said Ram Dasmohapatra, a priest.

Padhee said the priests have pledged to cooperate with the government for smooth conduct of the nine-day mega festival.

The priests expressed displeasure over the temple administration collecting donation under Jagannath Kotha Bhoga scheme (formerly known as Amruta Manohi). "Only priests have the right of accepting donations under Kotha Bhoga scheme from devotees. The temple should stop collecting money under it," Dasmohapatra said.

The priests had been demanding abolition of the Amruta Manohi donation scheme since 2008. They had staged a protest during the visit of chief minister Naveen Patnaik to Puri temple on January 1, 2009.

Sources said the temple recently received a letter from the law department, seeking its opinion on whether the scheme should be scrapped in view of protests by priests. Under the existing scheme, the temple is receiving donations between Rs 2,000 and Rs 20,000 from devotees. Annually, the scheme is fetching nearly Rs 35 lakh revenue for the temple administration.

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 28, 2013.