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Former Comptroller and Auditor General AG Vinod Rai has said that he would constitute a special committee to take up audit of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple here.
Rai, who has been appointed by the Supreme Court to head the audit, paid a visit to the temple on Monday night. His team will audit accounts of the temple pertaining to the last 25 years.
Temple administration
The apex court had issued the order after Gopal Subramaniam, amicus curiae and former Solicitor-General, had made a series of revelations in a specially-commissioned report submitted to it.
The report mentioned gold plating machines inside the temple, leading to suspicion that gold was being spirited away from temple precincts by some ‘very influential’ people.
The report expressed apprehensions that ‘some people in the highest echelons of the temple administration’ might have had something to do with it.
Faulty administration
It had also raised serious questions over the manner in which temple affairs were being managed and administered.
Rai told newspersons here on Monday that a team of finance officials will be selected for the audit team.
A consultant was expected to present within a week a proposal to clean up the Padmatheertham pond in the precincts, according to KN Satheesh, Chief Executive Officer of the temple.
A review of security has required that more CCTV cameras be installed for surveillance.
There are 58 cameras operating currently. Traffic bollards, blockers and speed-folding doors were being erected.
Security ramp-up
The retractable or ‘rising’ bollards can be lowered entirely below the road surface to enable traffic to pass, or raised to block traffic.
Rising bollards are used to secure sensitive areas from attack, or to enforce traffic rules that are time related, or to restrict access to particular classes of traffic.
More bollards and blockers will come up along the northern and southern gates. “Speed-folding doors will be installed at the temple entries in two weeks,” said Sukumaran Pillai, Chief Security Officer.
Others security fitments include door-frame metal detectors; security sensors; and bomb detection and dispensing equipment.
X-ray baggage scanners and bullet-proof sentry booths were also planned.
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