The new chairman of the expert panel appointed by the Supreme Court to assess the wealth of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Mr M.V. Nair, said that the inventorying process, which had been withheld for months, would begin on February 17 or 18. An experimental assessment, which will take three days, will be carried out on February 9 and the progress report will be submitted to the top court on February 15. The decisions were announced after a joint sitting of the five-member expert panel and the three-member supervisory committee here on Sunday.
Keltron will provide the technical support for the inventorying process. “Some state-of-the-art paraphernalia have already arrived,” the expert panel head said. “The rest will reach before February 9,” he added. The state government had already disbursed funds to Keltron for the purpose. Senior Keltron officials, who were also present at the meeting on Sunday, elaborated on the technical aspects of wealth assessment. This was the first meeting conducted by the expert panel after Mr Nair took over from Mr C.V. Ananda Bose as chairman. As per an unofficial estimate, the temple has wealth worth `1 lakh crores. All the six vaults in the temple, except Chamber B, have been opened following a petition filed by former IPS officer T.P. Sunderarajan.
The Supreme Court had appointed two committees — one a five-member panel to videograph and photograph the articles in the underground chambers and a three-member committee to oversee the operations of the expert committee. After Ananda Bose’s retirement, the state government had recommended the name of Mr Nair, a conservationist, as the next chairman.