SJTA To Conduct Socio-Economic Survey Of Servitors

Puri : The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has asked the Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies in Bhubaneswar to conduct another socio-economic survey of servitors, informed Chief Administrator Krishan Kumar after a meeting of the Temple Management Committee.

Kumar said that as the temple is closed due coronavirus pandemic, the SJTA will take steps to arrange for the livelihood of the servitors. SJTA has already released two installments of the Rs 5000 financial assistance to servitors and the third and fourth installment will be released in July and August respectively.

The Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies has been asked to undertake another socio-economic survey of servitors which will include the details about the number of servitors, their economic and social status, number of members in their family and their educational qualification. It will help to frame welfare strategies for the servitors, Kumar said.

Kumar further informed that under the Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) component of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), the SJTA will donate some land if needed to construct houses of around 200 to 250 poor servitor families based on the socio-economic survey data. The SJTA along with the PMAY (Urban) will frame a composite scheme by the end of this month which will include the guidelines for selection of the beneficiaries.