B vault: Major stakeholders welcome SC decision

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Supreme Court on Thursday making it clear that documentation and preservation of assets found in the chambers of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple  ought to be completed before opening the ‘B’ vault of the temple, major parties involved in the issue welcomed the directive. C V Anandabose, Vice-Chancellor of National Museum Institute,  who is heading the expert panel, told ‘Express’, that the apex court had accepted 15 out of the 16 proposals submitted by the panel. “The blueprint of the action plan submitted to the Supreme Court had been accepted.Now, the next step is to implement the plan. We have requested for a one-year period for the completion of scientific evaluation of the treasure and this process will start immediately,’’ he said. He said the next meeting of the expert committee would be held next week and the aim was to complete the scientific evaluation as quickly as possible. ‘’One of the proposals that was accepted by the SC on Thursday was about providing a permanent office for the expert panel in close proximity to the temple. Till now we were working from temporary office but once the evaluation process starts we will need a permanent office because we have to deal with confidential documents. It will also help the committee to speed up its work,’’ he said.  Another member of the expert panel and the executive officer of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, V K Harikumar, said that he welcomed the Supreme Court directive. The Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran while turning down the plea of the expert committee to hand over the security of the temple to Central paramilitary forces, had directed the State Government to provide foolproof security cover to the temple to protect its assets. The Bench also said that the management of the temple should provide an amount of Rs 25 lakh per year for preservation of assets and security of the temple and the rest of the amount needed would be borne by the State Government. ‘’We will go by the SC order and would provide the required expenses,’’ said Harikumar. Aditya Varma, member of the Travancore royal family, said that the royal family would abide by the Supreme Court directive and would comment after the SC pronounces its final verdict regarding the opening of the ‘B’ vault.‘’Meanwhile, we will follow the directive of the Supreme Court. Everything will take place according to the will of Lord Padmanabha,’’ he said.  Anathapadmanbhan, nephew of T P Sundararajan, the man who fought for transparency in the management of the the temple assets and who died during the trial, said that he fully welcomed the SC order. ‘’It is more than what we have expected. First the contention was about videographing and photographing the temple wealth. Now the Supreme Court has made it clear the need for complete digitisation and creation of a database of the wealth which is most welcome,’’ he said. The court said that no tenders should be invited from private players to take up the contract work for preservation of the temple assets. The court had directed that it should be done by the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron).