TN CM offers Rs 10 cr gold bond to temple

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday handed over gold bond worth Rs 10 crore to the officials of the Arulmigu Mariamman temple at Irukkankudi in Virudhunagar district as part of the gold monetisation scheme aimed to generate revenue for temples. The temple’s unused gold ornaments, which were converted into gold bars were deposited with the State Bank of India recently.

The gold deposit certificate was handed over to principal secretary of Tourism and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department B Chandra Mohan, HR & CE Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran and other officials in the presence of HR & CE Minister P K Sekar Babu at the secretariat here. The gold bond was given to the Arulmigu Mariamman temple, Irukkankudi, following the re-launch of the gold monetisation scheme by the state government in October last year.

Originally, the scheme was launched in 1979. Under the scheme, small gold ornaments offered by the devotees but lying unused with the temples would be converted into gold bars and deposited with the nationalised banks to generate revenue, which will be utilised to carry out temple renovation and restoration works, the government said.

As per the scheme, small gold ornaments offered by the devotees to nine major temples including Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani, Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai, Sri Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Tiruchendur and Mariamman temple in Samayapuram, were converted into gold bars. The department has deposited gold bars weighing over 497 kg so far. – PTI