Stalin hands over Rs 10 cr gold investment bond to Mariamman temple

CHENNAI: The State government on Wednesday presented the maiden gold investment bond to an HR&CE temple by monetising the un utilised gold received from devotees.

Chief Minister M K Stalin presented a gold investment bond for Rs 10 crore to the authorities of the Irukkakudi Mariamman Temple in Virudhu Nagar district at a function in the state secretariat.

The government had announced in the policy note for 2021-22 of HR and CE department last year that a scheme would be implemented for monetizing gold received by HR&CE temples from devotees during the last ten years by melting such unutilized gold at the government refinery in Mumbai and depositing them as pure gold bars in names of temples in banks.

The State government had classified the state into three zones, Chennai, Trichy and Madurai areas and constituted audit committees headed by retired High Court and Supreme Court judges for the gold investment bond scheme.

Accordingly, committees headed by retired Supreme Court judge Duraisamy Raju, retired High Court judge K Ravichandra Babu and retired High Court judge R Mala were constituted for Tiruverkadu Devi Karumariamman Temple, Trichy Samayapuram Mariamman temple and Irukkankudi Mariamman Temple in Madurai, respectively at the time of the launch of the scheme on October 13, 2021 by the Chief Minister.

The committee of Irukkankudi temple segregated 27,250.500 grams of gold on April 1, 2022, under the supervision of the judge. The gold was handed over to the manager of the Sattur branch of the State Bank of India. On April 18, the gold was converted into pure gold bars at the refinery in Mumbai in the presence of the concerned judge and officials.

On April 29, the bars were permanently deposited with the SBI bullion branch in Mumbai, a statement released by the government said. Putting the value of deposited gold bars at Rs 10 crore, the statement said that about Rs 23 lakh would be annually deposited in the account of the temple as interest towards the deposit.

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