Thiruvananthapuram, October 1, 2013: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is learnt to have taken a U-turn on the controversial data collection on gold stocks in temples. The apex bank has informed the Travancore Devaswom Board which manages 1,200-odd temples, including the Sabarimala hill shrine, that its letter seeking details may be ignored.

Highly-placed sources in the TDB told Express that the bank officials had informed them that the details need not be provided. “We have asked them to give a written request to ignore the previous letter,” they said.

However, the board meeting of the TDB on Tuesday had decided not to reveal the details. “The meeting decided not to comply with the apex bank request,” TDB member Subhash Vasu said. The RBI officials were not available for comment.

The Cochin and Guruvayur Devaswom Boards and the Attukal Temple Trust had earlier decided not to submit the details. “The administrative committee meeting had decided not to concede to the demand. The decision will be informed in writing soon,” Attukal Temple Trust president Radhakrishnan Nair said.

The RBI move had invited the wrath of various Hindu organisations.

 The Hindu Aikyavedi had convened a meeting of representatives of all the temple managements in the state in Guruvayur on October 16 to discuss the issue.

The discriminatory move was also flayed by the Bharatiya Vichara Kendram.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had wrote to the temple managements not to reveal the details, which they termed “an attempt to plunder the temple wealth to support the falling economy”.

Source: The New Indian Express, October 1, 2013