After Modi’s nod, Somnath Temple to invest in gold monetisation

Another example of misuse of takeover of temples by government or political leaders. The gold or jewellery donated to the God with faith by devotees, belongs to Him/Her only. Why Govt do not dare to takeover properties or wealth belonging to Churches, Waqf board and mosques ? – Editor, HJS website

The Somnath Temple Trust is all set to become Gujarat’s first temple to deposit its idle gold in the gold monetisation scheme as its trustees including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have given their nod to invest the yellow metal reserves in the scheme.

The trust has around 35 kg of gold and will deposit the gold which is not in day-to-day use of the temple.

The decision was taken during the recently held meeting of trustees at Modi’s residence in Delhi on January 12, said the trust secretary P K Lahiri, who is also one of the trustees of the Somnath Temple, situated in the Gir-Somnath district.

“During the meeting, all the trustees have agreed to the proposal of depositing the gold, which is not in day-to-day use of the temple, in the gold monetisation scheme,” said Lahiri.

According to him, the trust is having around 35 kg of gold, which is either in the form of pure gold or ornaments. Now, the management will segregate the pure gold from the whole lot to finalise the quantum of gold which can be deposited.

“We don’t have a huge amount of gold. Majority of the gold is used for decoration on day-to-day basis in the temple. Thus out of that 35 kg of gold, we will separate pure gold which can be deposited under the scheme,” said Lahiri.

Other trustees of the Somnath Temple trust include former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who is also the chairman of the trust, veteran BJP leader L K Advani, Harshvardhan Neotia and JD Parmar. All these six trustees were present during the meet.

BJP president Amit Shah was appointed as the seventh trustee during the meet on January 12.

Source : Rediff