Chief Minister Of Tamil Nadu's Plan To Turn Temple Jewellery Into Gold Bars

Tamil Nadu: On Wednesday, MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, commenced preliminary work to dissolve the unutilized jewellery in the state's temples into 24 carat gold bars.

The gold ornaments that have remained unused in the three famed temples of Sri Karumariamman in Tiruverkadu, Sri Mariamman in Samayapuram, and Sri Mariamman in Irukkankudi will be dissolved and transformed into gold bars for monetisation.

The government stated that the cash collected by investing gold bars in nationalised banks would be utilised to establish temples under the State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department.

In the midst of HR & CE Minister P K Sekar Babu, Tourism, Culture and HR & CE Principal Secretary B Chandra Mohan, HR & CE Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran, and other officials, the Chief Minister virtually inaugurated the resuscitation of the initiative from the Secretariat in Chennai on Wednesday.

According to an official release, the temple gold monetisation scheme was established in 1979, and gold presented by worshippers to nine significant temples, along with the ancient Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple in Madurai, Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani, Sri Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Tiruchendur, and Mariamman temple in Samayapuram, was transformed into gold bars.

Only those gold jewellery presented by devotees but standing unused for the past ten years would be melted by the authorities. The administration stated that the jewellery now used to adorn the idols would not be monetised. So far, 497.795 kg of 24-karat gold bars have been deposited in nationalised banks.