No state take-over of royal temple, says Govt

TPURAM: The Kerala Government has made it clear that the takeover of the magnificent Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in the state capital from trusteeship of the Travancore Royal house is not on its agenda.

The Government stated its position in a statement filed in a local court Monday in connection with a private petition, seeking the state-take over of the grand temple and its invaluable jewels and moveable properties.

The petitioner had sought a direction from the court to the state government to seize reins of the temple and wanted the officials of its present administration to be restrained from entering the inner chambers of the complex, where rare jewels, gold vessels and other precious items are believed to be kept.

In the statement filed before the Principal Sub-Court here, the Government said it did not have any plan to take the reins of the temple, since there have been no complaints against the present set-up.

An architectural splendour, the sprawling temple with its rows of carved pillars, engravings, huge portals and pagoda like tower, the temple was built by Marthanda Varma Maharaja in 1729 in place of a small, ancient temple.