Central agencies to take over Sree Padmanbha Swami Temple security

Thiruvananthapuram : Central govt is taking steps to bring central security forces for the security of Sree Padmanabha swami temple in view of increased threat to temple in recent times.

Taking in to
account the news reports from the intelligence agencies regarding the
threat to the temple, on March 9th the Prime Ministers Office through a
letter to home department (ref- PMP 4/750328) has requested the service
of CISF or  BSF for the temple security.The Thirumala thirupathy
devasthanam is currently under NSG security cover. There are facilities
like meter detactors and modern equipments along with the presence of
NSG black cat commandos.

PM’s office has taken very serious note of the reports pertaining to
the security of the temple and asked cheif security advisor M.K
Naryanan to look in to the same. M.K Narayanan visited temple and also
held discussions with the temple trust members as well as the royal
family members. He also asked the state government’s opinion in this regard. Centre can also take the ownership of temple under the
Archaeological act. Currently the Thiruvallom Parasurama temple, even
though it is under Devaswom board they have to take approval from
Archaeology department to perform any activity.

It was Malayalam daily Janmabhumi which first reported the news that
there are threats to Sree Padmanabha swami temple and its properties.
Under the administration of a Non-hindu officer the secret repositories
of gold and other precious stones were opened against temple rituals
and norms.

Only 3 times in history during the Travancore royal family’s
rule the repositories were opened. Once during the time of Sree
Marthanda varma when Travancore was facing a financial crisis , second
time during Uthram thirunal’s time when money was required for defence
expenses and one more time for taking a loan of 5 lakh rupees.

This
time the cunning christian executive officer ordered the opening of the
repositories secretly but the timely intervention of
devotees and temple staff stopped him from doing that. Later this
matter was questioned in court by a group of devotees  and court
ordered the examination of the repositories for asset evaluation in the
presence of senior judiciary of kerala sessions court.

This evaluation
on a high level itself revealed that temple has crores worth of assets.
It was also revealed that out of the 340 golden pots used for annual
aratt festival, 20 of them are broken and also found 2 golden umbrella,
golden stick, silver vessels, golden bottles to store Panineer, golden
vessels etc were the few items found in this court evaluation. Now with
this news about all these assets floating around, there are seriuos
concerns about the temple security which prompted the centre to
intervene.

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