The large quantity of jewellery in vaults E and F of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple will be the first to be inventoried when the process resumes at the temple on Monday.
Committee sources told The Hindu on Friday that the experts who would gauge the quality of the jewels had been identified and put on stand by. The workstation erected inside the temple for the inventorying had also been modified to allow for the inventorying of the jewellery and other precious stones. Once that was done, the committee would open and inventory vault A.
Then arises the crucial question relating to vault B. The Supreme Court, in its order dated July 21, 2011, had directed the expert committee to give its opinion on the opening of vault B “at this stage.”
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“In its interim report-IV, the committee has not given any opinion after examining all aspects of the matter as directed in the order dated July 21 as to whether it is necessary to open Kallara B at this stage,” the Supreme Court order of April 18 says.
It is in such a situation that the Supreme Court directed the committee to first complete the inventorying of vault A, and then submit its opinion about opening vault B.
Sources familiar with the deliberations of the expert committee said there was an informal decision in one meeting to open vault B, at least to find out how much leftover space there was inside it.
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“Kallara B has a vault-like structure in an antechamber to the main space behind the door. If that can be opened and examined, we will know whether we can store all the permanent artefacts that are inventoried. If that had been done, we could have saved the Rs.37 lakh that is now needed to strengthen vault C,” sources privy to the committee's deliberations said.
50 more commandos
Fifty more commandos of the Kerala Police will soon be deployed for strengthening the six-layer security system around the Padmanabhaswamy temple.
The commandos are currently undergoing training and this is likely to be over in a month, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said here on Saturday.
He was speaking to The Hindu on Saturday after his first visit to the temple after taking over as the Home Minister.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said he was totally satisfied with the security arrangements in place at the temple. “I personally inspected the cameras, the lighting, and other security devices inside the temple, and I am convinced everything is in order,” he said.
Earlier, speaking to presspersons outside the temple, Mr. Radhakrishnan, in reply to a question, said the State government had no plans to take over the administration of the temple.