1 week Ago By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: Price of khaja, the favourite sweet of Lord Jagannath and his devotees, has doubled in the last one week as the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has mandated use of pure ghee supplied by Omfed in making of the prasad. A piece of khaja which was earlier selling at Rs 10, is now being sold at Rs 20-Rs 22. The price of Srimandir Mahaprasad is also set to go up substantially in the coming days.
After the Tirupati laddu controversy, chief administrator of SJTA Arabinda Padhee wrote to Omfed last week to supply pure ghee to Srimandir for preparation of all kinds of ‘bhoga’ and lighting of lamps in the shrine. Omfed has already started the supply at subsidised rates but its cost is still substantially higher than the ghee used earlier. Currently, it is providing two tonne to Srimandir every day and if required, the state-run milk federation plans to increase the supply to three tonne a day.
President of Suara Mahasuara Nijog Padmanava Mahasuara said, “Earlier, substandard and cheap ghee was used to make khaja by almost all the sweetmakers outside the temple and cooks inside the shrine. However, with SJTA mandating use of only Omfed ghee, the price of Sukhila Bhoga, particularly khaja, has increased. Khaja is layered and fried in ghee while other Sukhila Bhoga do not use much ghee.
” He said the use of Omfed ghee will also reflect on the cost of Mahaprasad in the days to come. The demand for Mahaprasad is high during Kartik month. The SJTA has also asked the Jagannath Temple Police (JTP) to prevent entry of any other brand of ghee into the Srimandir premises.
On the other hand, amidst reports of Suara Mahasuara Nijog writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about provision of pure ghee to Srimandir and the establishment of a ‘goshala’ in Puri to meet the shrine’s milk and ghee requirement, Padmanava said none of the office-bearers of the nijog has written the letter. “We have not made any such demand. Pure ghee is now being supplied by Omfed to the shrine and there will be no discontinuation in its use from our side,” he said.
After Shree Jagannath temple, Omfed is planning to streamline supply of ghee to all major shrines across the state. While many of the temples are using Omfed ghee for cooking ‘bhoga’, the use is irregular because the supply is through retailers. As a result, the temples end up using other brands of ghee that are cheap and adulterated.
Omfed MD Vijay Amruta Kulange said ghee supply to temples like Lingaraj, Ananta Basudev, Maa Samaleswari, Kapilas, etc., will be streamlined and other temples will also be urged to only use it..
