Move to Woo Big Donators

BY: SUN CORRESPONDENT

Jan 16, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — VIP treatment, package tour to some scenic hill stations and free food and accommodation at Puri, and many more freebies. All those facilities may soon be showered on the big donators who give general donation to Lord Jagannath. The Jagannath Temple administration has put forward this proposal in order to woo more donators from across the world.

This idea struck the temple officials after the world famous 12th century shrine received a staggering amount of Rs 51 Lakh from a devotee in December, 2006, though the shrine officials revealed this on Tuesday only. Temple authorities maintained that no other Indian devotee had ever donated that amount to the Lord in the past. Earlier, only a Swiss woman, a Christian, had donated Rs 1 crore 78 Lakh to the Jagannath Temple administration in early 2006.

“If big donators show their benevolence to Lord Jagannath, it is our responsibility to do something for them. So we are planning to provide certain special privileges like VIP treatment, package tours among others to the big donators, who give general donation” said a Jagannath temple official.

According to sources, till now the temple administration has been providing a few privileges only to those devotees who donate to the Lord’s corpus fund. “The corpus fund donators are called ‘special’ and ‘patron’ devotees. Under this scheme the special and patron donators give donations of more than Rs 1 Lakh and Rs 10 Lakh, respectively,” said temple’s chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra.

“The special and patron donators are given a few facilities, like two days’ free accommodation at Puri, free prasad and special darshan of the Lord. Their names are also engraved on a marble surface in the temple,” Mohapatra said. “But no such facility is available for the general donators. So we are planning to encourage the general donators, who contribute huge amount. Like the corpus fund benefiters, the general donators can avail many facilities,” Mohapatra said.

Meanwhile, the donation of Rs 51 Lakh has helped touch Rs 86.3 Lakh, as general donations received by the temple administration in 2007. It had received a general donation of Rs 36.33 Lakh in 2006-07 financial year, sources said. Similarly, the temple’s corpus fund donation touched Rs 52.24 Lakh in 2007.

“Till now the total amount in the temple’s corpus fund is Rs 97 crore. The Jagannath Temple managing committee is happy that its aim of going near Rs 100 crore mark became fulfilled,” said Mohapatra. Also the temple collected Rs 9.47 Lakh from ATM counters and around Rs 1 crore 28 Lakh and 36 thousand was received from hundi (offertory box) in 2007.