Bhubaneswar:  The Odisha government today announced names of the members of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing committee which was long overdue.

The Law department published a notification in the official gazette today in this regard.

The State government under relevant clauses of Section 6 of the Shree Jagannath Temple Act 1954 nominated ten persons as members of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee.

Sidheswar Mohapatra (representing Mukti Mandap), Madhab Pujapanda (representing Puja Panda Nijog), Nilakantha Mohapatra (representing Pushpalak Nijog),Madhab Chandra Mohapatra (representing Pratihari Nijog), Ananta Kumar Tiadi (representing Suar Nijog), Ram Das Mohaptra (representing Daitapati Nijog), Sachidananda Das Maharaj (adhyaksha Jhanjapita Matha, Puri), Bijaya Sahu (Chartered Accountant), Raghunath Mohapatra (sculptor) and Mahimohan Tripathy (ex-administrator SJTA,Puri) are the members nominated by the State government.

Notably, the tenure of the outgoing managing committee had ended on July 23 last year.

It is worthwhile to mention here that Puri king Gajapati Maharaja Dibya Singha Deb, the permanent president of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee had expressed concern before the media over the State government’s delay in constitution of the body.

Subsequent to the Gajapati Maharaja’s remarks Chief Administrator of Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Pradeep Kumar Jena had told the media that the State government would soon announce the committee while refraining to make any comments on the Gajapati Maharaja’s remarks.