The Puri Shree Jagannath Temple Management Committee on Wednesday decided to write to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) not to organise untimely Rath yatras in different parts of the world.

The chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple, Dr Krishan Kumar, said: “The Puri Gajapati, the chairman of the management committee, Dibyasingha Deb, will write a letter to the ISKCON head on the issue and ask the authorities concerned not to organise such untimely Rath Yatras.”

Officials said the temple management would send a calendar of the Shree Jagannath Temple that describes and enlists all the festivals that are observed at the temple.

“In his letter, the Puri Gajapati will urge ISKCON to adhere to the rituals followed at the Shree Jagannath Temple and not dilute the Shree Jagannath culture,” said a member of the management committee, Ramachandra Das Mohapatra.

Sources said it would urge the Odisha government to also take up this issue with ISKCON. “There will be a meeting of ISKCON officials at its headquarter in Mayapur in Bengal. We will ask them to take up this issue at that meeting and stop all such practices of conducting the Rath Yatra on dates contrary to the Shree Jagannath shrine tradition” said Das Mohapatra.