On-line donation through ATMs for Lord Jagannath

Bhubaneswar, May 27 (UNI) Hi-tech donation through ATMs, introduced by Jagannath Temple, has yielded a good result with the temple receiving an income of Rs 10 lakhs a year.

Jagannath Temple Chief Administrator S C Mohapatra today told newspersons here that ever since the Temple management introduced the on-line donation in 2006-2007, it received good response across the country to donate through ATMs.

Mr Mohapatra said around Rs 60,000 had been received every month from the State Bank of India ATMs.

The minimum amount that can be donated by a devotee was Rs 51.

He said donations had also been received from the ATM counters of UTI and HDFC bank.

He said that there had been a remarkable growth in the corpus fund deposit of the temple from Rs 43.54 crores in 2003-2004 to Rs 68.27 crore in 2006-2007.

The interest from the corpus fund had also registered an all time record of Rs 7 crores during the year as against Rs 4.75 crores received in 2006.

Mr Mohapatra said the temple management has deposited Rs 68.27 crores on a long-term basis with the interest rate of 11.5 per cent, in which the annual interest accrual would be around Rs 7 crores.

The temple had also notched up a growth of 33.5 per cent in terms of donation, from Rs 22.82 lakh to Rs 30.28 lakh, from Amrut Manohi and Dana Yojana within two years.

The income from the Hundi had also gone up from Rs 95.50 lakhs in 2004-2005 to Rs 133.98 lakhs in 2006-2007.

The income from the Donation Box had also risen from Rs 2.22 lakhs to Rs 8.14 lakhs.

''A donor from Switzerland has paid Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 178 lakhs on two occasions, while another donor from Jharkhand had paid Rs 25 lakh,'' Mr Mohapatra said.

He informed that the temple management had entered into a MoU with an International Agency Quest Nest for releasing 10,000 gold and silver medallion for which the temple would receive a royalty of Rs 10 lakhs a year.

The temple income from 'Parimanik darshan' had gone up from Rs 28.57 lakhs in 2004-2005 to Rs 55.92 lakhs in 2006-2007.

The income from sale of land stood at Rs 49.67 lakhs while from the auction sale of different Mahals reached Rs 48.80 lakhs as against Rs 27.10 lakhs in 2004-2005, a growth of 80 per cent.

UNI