The Covid-19 crisis has hit every source of economic activity very badly.

Religious institutions are among those worst affected.

In a latest update, the Travancore Devasom Bpard (TDB) said it’s estimated losses, calculated from lack of economic activity various temples, due to Covid-19 totaled almost Rs. 200 crore.

To cover this huge loss, TDB is reportedly thinking of auctioning various precious temple belongings.

TDB is repprtedly planning to place the non-usable temple assets in bonds.

“According to the Central government’s scheme, we can put gold in the bank at the interest rate of 2.5 per cent. So we thought it’s better to keep gold like coins, bars, etc in the bank,” says Board President Vasu, in a media interaction.

In response to this, various Hindi organizations including Hindu Aikya Vedi and Antharashtra Hindu Parishad (AHP) have filed petitions challenging the Board’s decision against auctioning brass, lanterns and other temple belongings.

They questioned the Board’s decision to categorize gold and silver also as non-usable metals and place them in bank.

As the sources say, the Board is currently thinking of selling tonnes of such belongings from around 1248 temples under its control.

“The board is trying to use the assets for raising the funds instead of letting them remain unattended,” adds the Board President.