Headlines
266 kg gold missing from Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple: audit report
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 13
As much as 266 kg
gold is missing from the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here, says
former chief government auditor Vinod Rai in his audit report submitted
to the apex court.
The highlight of the report that has been
obtained by media reveals that out of the 893 kg gold that was given out
for various works, only 627 kg has been returned to the temple.
Rai was asked by the Supreme Court last year to conduct an audit of the temple's books and accounts.
An
division bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice A.K. Patnaik last
April in its interim order asked former comptroller and auditor general
(CAG) Rai to undertake the audit of the temple accounts and properties
for the past quarter of a century.
This directive came on the
recommendations of amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam, who had sought
overhauling of the functioning of the temple.
Apart from asking
Rai to audit the accounts of the temple, the apex court also directed
the formation of a new five-member committee comprising of a judge from
the capital city, the temple tantri, chief nambi of the Sri
Padmanabhaswamy temple and two more members, of which one will be
appointed in consultation with the state government and one would be the
choice of the judge.
It was in July 2011 that an apex court
committee stumbled upon six vaults in the temple and with just vault B
left to be opened, the treasure that has been found in the other five
vaults have been estimated to be valued more than Rs.100,000 crore.
Since
then, armed security guards besides state of the art security equipment
has been deployed for the safe upkeep of this treasure.
Reacting
to the new developments, Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator
V.Sivankutty said that a few years back all hell broke loose when
V.S.Achuthanandan said that things are not going in the way it should go
in the temple as far as the priceless treasures upkeep are concerned
and blamed the Travancore royal family.
"Look, what Rai has come
out in his report. There are some views from some quarters that the
issues of this temple should be hushed up. Now with this report,
responsibilities should be fixed and those people who have caused this
should be brought to light," he said.
The erstwhile Travancore Royal Family with its headquarters in the capital city is however yet to react on Rai's report.