Siddhivinayak temple to auction ornaments

Siddhivinayak temple will soon auction gold and silver ornaments donated by the devotees once it gets an official nod from Maharashtra Government.

"On January 29, we had a meeting in the office of Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal to discuss about the auction of gold and silver ornaments donated by the devotees," Siddhivinayak Trust Chairperson Subhash Mayekar said.

In principle, the government has agreed and "we are waiting for the official communication regarding this," Mayekar said. Part of the auction money will be given to social causes and the rest will be utilised for activities in temple, he said.

Earlier, Maharashtra Government, which is the custodian of the temple, allowed auction of silver ornaments costing up to Rs 500 and others used to be melted and kept in the form of bars.

Since the rest of the ornaments remained as idle inventory for the last few years, and also the melting reduced the value of gold, the temple officials decided to approach the government to take permission for auctioning, Mayekar said.

However, the temple officials will not auction those ornaments meant for the idol of lord the Ganesha. The temple trust has a gold reserve of Rs two crore for the period from 1999 to 2004 and more than Rs three core from 2004 till date.

Most of it will be auctioned, Mayekar said and the date of the auction will be announced once the government official letter comes to the trust.