Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin handed over the bond certificate for 91.061 kg of gold belonging to Arulmigu Bhavani Amman temple in Periyapalayam to its custodians during an event at the Secretariat in Chennai on Thursday.
The value of the bonds in exchange of the gold deposited in the State Bank of India in Mumbai under Revamped Gold Deposit Scheme, 2015, is ₹46.31 crore and an interest of ₹1.04 crore annually would be available for maintenance of temples, an official release said.
Offerings of gold ornaments weighing over 130.6 kg were made to the temple. After they were categorised, the not-in-use gold ornaments were melted into pure gold, which was 91.061 kg of gold. Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments P.K. Sekar Babu, Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu, retired Supreme Court judge D. Raju and senior officials were present on the occasion.
It may be recalled that the government had decided to deposit not-in-use gold that were received as offerings from devotees would be deposited in nationalised banks and the interest would be used for for maintenance of temples. It also constituted three committees in this regard.
