BHUBANESWAR: In the wake of the controversy surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the keys of Puri Jagannath Temple's inner treasury or Ratna Bhandar and scathing attack from opposition parties, the state government on Monday removed the shrine's chief administrator Pradeep Kumar Jena, an IAS officer, from the key post. Another IAS officer, P K Mohapatra will replace Jena, who will continue to serve as secretary of the water resources department.The chief minister's office that sent a message to journalists on WhatsApp about Jena's sudden transfer did not specify the reason for his removal. Jena's removal was announced while he was busy attending a high-level meeting with Puri district judge Ambuja Mohan Das and other district officials in the district.Ambuja Mohan Das, the district judge of Puri who was asked by the Supreme Court to submit a report on the difficulties faced by visitors at the Jagannath Temple, as well as exploitative practices and deficiencies in the temple management, began his inquiry on Monday. He will submit his report on June 30.Das met officials of the temple, the district collector and the SP and asked them about the difficulties faced by the devotees. "We will cooperate with the district judge in his probe. He sought some details which we will supply soon," a senior temple official said.The temple administration also met the members of Chhatisa Nijog (a confederation of different servitors) and discussed the Supreme Court directive. The apex court on Friday asked the temple administration to prevent servitors from accepting dakshina from pilgrims. A number of priests expressed apprehension about the financial losses they would incur after the implementation of the court's directive."We will discuss the matter with the members of all nijogs (associations of servitors) and file a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking a revocation of the order. If the order is implemented, many servitors will suffer heavy losses," president of Daitapati Nijog (an association of servitors), Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra, said.Devotees, however, sought immediate implementation of the Supreme Court order. "We don't have a problem with donating money to servitors, but their conduct is harsh. They harass us and force us to pay. Pilgrims are often assaulted for refusing to pay the dakshina," said Pradipta Tripathy, a local devotee.On May 20, an IT professional from Thane and his wife were assaulted by three servitors when they refused to pay dakshina. In April, devotees were deprived of Mahaprasad for four days after a stand-off between different groups of servitors and the temple administration.

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