**Puri:** While Puri Jagannath Temple is yet to get over demonetization causing loss of lakhs of rupees, here’s another blow in the shape of banned foreign currency to the temple administration. It is reported that a huge amount of foreign currencies were found in the temple ‘hundi’. It included currency from USA, Kuwait, Nepal and Bhutan. The total worth of these currencies is yet to be revealed.
The temple authorities submitted it to the State Bank of India three months back. But now, the State Bank of India has returned the currencies to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) citing them as banned and invalid tenders.
The temple administration had even sent the banned notes to the RBI twice after the deadline for exchange of demonetized tenders, but the RBI also did not accept them.
Earlier, the donations in form of banned Rs 500 and 1,000 notes worth Rs 18 lakh had been found in the ‘hundi’ following demonetization by the Central Government. And recently, the SJTA burnt these notes after failing to get them exchanged from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).