The Puri Shree Jagannath Temple administration will withdraw its deposits of Rs 545 crore from the cash-starved Yes Bank following the lifting of the Reserve Bank’s moratorium on Wednesday evening.

The temple has informed Yes Bank about its intentions, officials said.

Shree Jagannath Temple administrator (development) Ajay Kumar Jena told The Telegraph: “We have written a letter to Yes Bank to release our money on Thursday. We have four fixed deposits. Two deposits amounting to Rs 389 crore (Rs 371 and Rs 18 crore) will mature on Thursday. We will withdraw the money on Thursday itself.

“Another two deposits amounting to Rs 156 crore (Rs 123 crore and Rs 33 crore) are scheduled to mature on March 30. But we have decided to withdraw this Rs 156 crore, too, on Thursday in advance without waiting for the maturity period to end. All the funds had been deposited in the form of term deposits with Yes Bank.

“We have asked Yes Bank to transfer the money to our SBI account. As the SBI is the new associate bank of Yes Bank, we have given the SBI account number… so that there is no problem in transferring the money.”

Sources said the temple administration decided not to wait till March 30 for the maturity of the deposits worth Rs 156 crore fearing that sudden withdrawal of money by lakhs of other depositors might create another financial crisis.

“There is a lack of trust at this point. We don’t want to take any further risk. We have already faced the wrath of people and the state administration for depositing the money in the private bank,” said a senior official.

In order to get back the Lord’s money on March 7, Odisha finance minister Niranjanan Pujhari had written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman apprising her about the concerns of millions of Lord Jagannath devotees whose contributions to the temple funds over the years were in jeopardy following the collapse of Yes Bank.

Later a delegation of ruling BJD MPs had met Sitharaman in New Delhi and sought her intervention.

Odisha had also witnessed a political furore over the safety of the Jagannath temple funds and the Opposition had demanded a probe of how the temple administration could opt for a private bank instead of parking the funds in a nationalised bank.