From the Press Trust of India via The Times of India, Mumbai Sunday, December 20, 2015
NEW DELHI, India -- As the government seeks to monetise gold worth an estimated $1 trillion lying idle, all eyes are on their biggest repositories -- the temples -- but many of them fear that "melting" of the ornaments donated by devotees may hurt religious sentiments.
Officials at a number of rich and famous temples across the country said they may not be able to immediately participate in the scheme, while a few others said the scheme was worth exploring but a final decision was yet to be taken.
For some temples, including Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala and the Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Maharashtra, ongoing court cases are getting in the way.
The interest remains lukewarm among major temples in Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, and Rajasthan among other states, while a few in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Gujarat have shown initial interest.
However, most of them are concerned about issues like loss of value in the melting process and the religious sentiments of the devotees who donate gold ornaments in the name of the deities of the respective temples. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/econ...-rich-temple...
