Kerala temple panel meets for evaluation
The five-member expert committee constituted by the Supreme Court to scientifically evaluate the treasures found in vaults of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple today met to evolve strategies for the preservation of articles.
The panel headed by senior bureaucrat and Director General of National Museum CV Ananda Bose held a meeting to evolve a work plan to go about the job as mandated by the apex court, official sources said.
The committee, however, did not begin videographing and photographing of treasures, as directed by the court.
Other members of the panel are RBI nominee Vikas Sarma, archaeologist Dr MV Nair, Archaeological Survey Of India's nominee BV Raju and temple executive officer VK Harikumar.
The meeting reviewed the work already done by seven-member committee which had opened four of the six inner chambers and inventoried the articles.
The inventory panel, which included two former judges of the Kerala High Court, had opened four vaults, which were found to contain a glittering pile of priceless treasures like gold jewels, stone-studded crowns, rare idols, rubies, diamonds, piles of gold coins and stacks of gold and silver ware, reportedly worth over Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik, had on July 21 ordered the formation of the panel to supervise the unearthing and preservation of the assets.