By Sajith Kumar
KOCHI(Commodity Online): The World's richest temple, perhaps the richest place for worship in the world , Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in South India's Kerala state is back again in limelight, one and a half years after the discovery of the great treasure.

Some of the proposals made by Gopal Subramaniam, the amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court to render assistance and to represent the expert committee going into the security, inventory and other aspects related to the temple, have received more bricks and brats than flowers.

The eighth century temple shot into fame across the world after a mega treasure consisting of thousands of kilos of gold, diamonds, gems and silver ornaments, found concealed in different cellars, later estimated to cross over a mind-blowing Rs 1,00,000 crore ($22 billion).

In his report, Subramaniam made recommendation to appoint a nephew of the present 'maharaja' Uthradam Thirunal Marthandavarma as the administrator of the temple and also recommended that politicians should be kept away from temple administration and protection of wealth as they were interested only in temple wealth.

The report was immediately got slammed by politicians in the state as they said it was a mockery of democracy and accused the amicus curiae of trying to bring back the vestige of “royalty” in India.

India abolished the privy purse and other privileges the 'millions' of royals enjoyed after country's independence and withdrew the recognition of their titles.

Front line politicians in the country demanded the massive wealth to be utilized for the benefit of the millions of poor people in the country.

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They argue that when India became a republic its constitution overrode the writ of all existing princely states in India, all the wealth amassed by the rulers of such states belonged to the country.

Many observers are of the view that the treasure to be kept separately and a public debate to be initiated to find out what needs to be done.

Others however said it cannot be done as the matter was in Supreme Court's consideration.

They suggested that even by displaying the wealth, the country can generate revenue (as tourists are expected to see world's largest gold treasure) that can be used to the benefit of the people without even touching a piece of the great treasure.

But a move in that direction is highly unlikely in the present Indian scenario.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is also considering the Temple to be included in the 'World Heritage Site' list.