BJD asks Centre to allow Puri Jagannath Temple to withdraw Rs 545 crore from Yes Bank

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Vice President Prasanna Acharya on Monday urged Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman to allow Puri Jagannath Temple administration to withdraw the temple's fund from the crisis-hit Yes Bank, claiming that it belongs to the common people of the country.

'It is a very precarious situation'

Acharya said he supported the move of state Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari writing to Union Finance Minister seeking her intervention in the matter. "It is a very precarious situation and our Finance Minister of Odisha has written to the Union Finance Minister to intervene in the matter to allow the Jagannath Temple Trust to withdraw the amount that is deposited in Yes Bank. The money belongs to the thousands of devotees," Acharya told ANI.

Acharya said the Yes Bank crisis will shatter the confidence of the depositors in the banking system. "I think it is a failure on the part of the central government and Reserve Bank of India and it proves that there is no proper monitoring system," he added.

'An amount of Rs 545 crore has been deposited with Yes Bank'

State Finance Minister Pujari had written to Sitharaman on March 8. "Various funds related to the temple - Foundation Fund, Corpus Fund, and Temple Fund - are being managed by the Managing Committee. Out of these funds, an amount of Rs 545 crore has been deposited with Yes Bank, Puri," Pujari wrote to Sitharaman.

"In this background, I request you to kindly issue necessary instruction to RBI to allow the release of deposits relating to SJTA in Yes Bank in the interest of millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath," he added.

READ | Odisha FM writes to Sitharaman on release of funds of Puri Jagannath temple from Yes Bank

On Thursday, RBI took control of Yes Bank and said it would work on a revival plan. State Bank of India (SBI) said on Saturday it would invest funds to buy a 49% stake in Yes Bank as part of the initial phase of a rescue deal for the troubled lender. Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Yes Bank had granted loans to Dewan Housing and Finance Ltd, which had gone bankrupt.

READ | Jagannath Temple's deposits worth Rs 592 cr with Yes Bank to be put in govt bank: Minister

During the period of the moratorium imposed by the RBI, the Yes Bank Ltd will not, without the permission in writing of the RBI, make payment to a depositor of a sum exceeding Rs 50,000 lying to his credit in any savings, current or any other deposit account.

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(With agency inputs)