Mantri junks Opp. Puri deposit claim
A day after the Opposition Congress and BJP cornered the ruling BJD for parking `545 crore Shri Jagannath temple fund in Yes Bank, alleging that it involved a huge kickback, Odisha finance minister Niranjan Pujari said the money was deposited in the bank in accordance with the existing banking rules and norms.
The minister trashed the allegation of kickback and said the government taking measures for return of the fund.
Replying to an adjournment motion in the State Assembly, Mr Pujari said Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) had adopted a transparent method to choose the bank. It had sought quotations on interest rates from Scheduled Commercial Bank and in the Yes Bank was chosen as it had quoted the highest interest rate.
“As many as 12 banks had participated in the quotation process. Yes Bank was selected as it has quoted 8.61 per cent interest rate and hence it was selected for deposit of temple funds in it,” said Mr Pujari.
He informed that the House that the state government had on March 7 written to the Reserve Bank of India requesting him to release of the temple fund.
“This apart, the state government has also requested the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for return of the `545 crore,” he added.
The minister sought to distance himself from the entire controversy saying that the SJTA manages the temple fund and the state government had no role in the deposit of `545 crore in Yes Bank.
Earlier, Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja and BJP legislator Mohan Majhi had said there had been a kickback of `3 crore in transferring the temple fund from a nationalised bank to Yes Bank.