Odisha House panel to probe why Lord Jagannath’s money is in Yes Bank

Odisha Assembly Speaker S N Patro on Friday announced the formation of a House committee to probe into the circumstances under which Lord Jagannath’s ₹545 crores was deposited in the crisis-hit Yes Bank.

Before adjourning the House till March 29 in wake of the coronavirus scare, the Speaker named 12 members of the committee headed by him.

The committee will inquire into the deposit of the Lord's money in the private bank by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).

Government Chief Whip Pramila Mallick moved a motion in this regard which got the nod of the Assembly.

The house committee will present a memorandum to the Government of India and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India relating to the release of the Lord's funds deposited in the private bank.

The Speaker will head the House committee, while the Leader of the Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik of BJP, Opposition Chief Whip Mohan Majhi, Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra and Congress whip Taraprasad Bahinipati will be the members.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha, Government Chief Whip Pramila Mallik, senior BJD MLA Debi Prasad Mishra, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Subash Chandra Panigrahi and Pratap Keshari Deb have also been appointed as the members of the committee.

CPMs lone member Laxman Munda is also one of the members of the house committee.

Earlier in the day, the Assembly was adjourned for one hour during the Question Hour due to an uproar by the opposition BJP members who demanded a house committee to probe into the matter relating to the deposit the money in the name of Lord Jagannath in the crisis-hit Yes Bank.

As soon as the question hour session began, the BJP members rushed to the well of the House and urged the Speaker to issue an order to form a house committee to probe into the incident and a CBI probe to identify those involved it.

The Congress members were seen supporting the BJPs demand by standing near their seats.

Unable to run the proceedings, the Speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 am.

During a debate in the assembly on Thursday, state Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari clarified that the state government had no role in the deposit of the Lord's money in Yes Bank.

He said the Lord's money was deposited in Yes Bank as it offered the highest rate of interest of 8.61 per cent.

Pujari had also said that he had written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requesting her to issue necessary instruction to the Reserve Bank of India to allow the release of deposits relating to SJTA in Yes Bank.

The SJTA has also written to the RBI for transfer of ₹545 crores deposited by it in Yes Bank, which faced moratorium by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and restrictions have been imposed on withdrawal of funds from the private lender.

The tenure of the fixed deposit ends this month.

However, Yes Bank was placed under a moratorium on March 5, with the RBI capping withdrawals at ₹50,000 per account for a month.