CM presents gold bond to temple

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.