Over 34,000 sign online petition against TN govt plan to melt temple gold

Team L&M

Shocked and pained, scores of people are protesting against the Tamil Nadu’s government plan to melt 2,137 kg temple gold. Over 34,654 people have signed an online petition (and the numbers are growing) started by Chennai resident S Karthik Gopinath on change.org seeking to put an immediate stop to it even as many are favouring the government plan stating that this is not a new thing.

The petition says that the government move is totally illegal as temple jewels are not government property. The other points listed in the petition are:

♦ The government does not have any role to decide which jewels should be melted as these offerings are made by devotees out of their love and faith.

♦ In a Suo Motu judgement dated June 7, 2021, the Madras High Court has stated that gold audit for temples has not been done for the last 60 years, and there has been no inventorisation and centralised registry of Jewels. The court has directed the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department (HR & CE) to get an external audit conducted by the CAG under the expertise of ASI, create a central registry and update the details of jewels in the website for public. It has also stated that melting gold jewels before the external audit will amount to the contempt of court.

♦ While temple trustees are given the sole right to decide on the temple gold issue, the trustees have not been appointed since many years. The HR & CE commissioner, which is just an approving authority, does not have any right to decide which temple gold should be melted.

Further, functioning of temples without the trustees is illegal and deciding to melt the gold without the trustees is much bigger violation, states the petition. The government plan of melting gold is also in contravention of the provisions of the Act and Jewels Rules, says the petition.