Why not put the temple wealth to good use?

What should India, rising but still plagued by poverty, do with a newly discovered treasure of gold coins, statues and jewels in the vault of a Hindu temple, valued at about $22 billion? Suggestions are pouring in from across the country and the world. Some say it should be used to establish universities and colleges. The man who brought the court case that resulted in the unveiling of the treasure wants it handed over to the Kerala state government. Others want a new subway system. Click here for more on that from Denver Post.

Senior Advocate, Mr K K Venugopal, representing the royal family, suggested the money could be used for opening a `ved pathsala' (school for study in ancient scriptures), training of pujaris and supporting other temples which are not as wealthy as Sree Swami Padmanbhaswamy temple.

For the full text of that report in the ToI, click here.

There is speculation that there are large caches of wealth even in the temples of Karnataka, like in Udupi, Mookambika, etc, though of course they may not compare in magnitude with the ones in Thiruvananthapuram.

Now, rather than just preserving these treasures, or pursuing some limited activity like the Ved Pathsala, etc, why not use them to pursue key infrastructure projects/ services, such as public bus transport, power distribution, water supply, solid waste disposal, effluent treatment and disposal, district hospitals management, Sabarimala and Guruvayoor temple pilgrimage facilities management, etc, on a social entrepreneurship basis? These have all so far been the monopoly domains of the government, and they have repeatedly been found wanting in capacity to meet the rapidly growing demand. For this, the temple management trusts could be made more broad-based to include retired and serving professionals of eminence, and executed by a professional team under a CEO.

I am sure such pursuits will have the fullest blessings of Lord Padmanabha.

Muralidhar Rao