The Dakshina Kannada district administration has asked the temples under the Endowment Department to prepare photo-catalogues of gold and silver ornaments with them.

Presiding over a meeting of temple administrators in Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday, AB Ibrahim, Deputy Commissioner of the district, said that all the ‘A’ and ‘B’ class temples in the district should conduct valuation of the gold ornaments and prepare photo-catalogues by August 15.

One copy of the photo-catalogue should be kept in the temple, another in the office of Assistant Commissioner of the division, and the third copy in the office of the Deputy Commissioner of the district.

AR Prabhakar, Endowment Tahasildar, said that eight of the 24 ‘A’ class temples in the district have already completed the photo-cataloguing process of gold ornaments.

Ibrahim said that photo-cataloguing of silver ornaments in ‘A’ and ‘B’ class temples should be completed by November.

He also suggested the inventory registry of gold and silver ornaments in temples be updated by March 31 of every financial year.

Valuation The State government had recently asked the temples to do the valuation of the ornaments by panels of nationalised banks. The process of valuation should be done in the presence of the revenue tahasildar of the region, and the process should be video-graphed.

Prabhakar said that temples are classified as ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ based on their annual income. Temples having an income of more than ₹25 lakh a year are classified under ‘A’ class, and those with annual income of ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh are classified under ‘B’ class. Those having an annual income of up to ₹5 lakh are classified ‘C’ class.

Dakshina Kannada district has 24 ‘A’ class temples, 35 ‘B’ class temples and 432 ‘C’ class temples.

CCTV cameras The meeting also urged the temple administrations to install CCTV cameras and burglar alarms on their premises under the guidance of the police department.

Apart from this, temple administrations should also take steps to install lightning arresters and fire extinguishers.

Prabhakar said that the Endowment Department had come out with a circular in 2011 urging the temple administrations to provide 31 basic facilities to the devotees who visit the temple. Some temples have not yet implemented those facilities. He urged the temple administrations to take steps to implement them soon.

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