Governments assurance on security

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar told the Assembly on Tuesday that the State Government was ready to provide the security for the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, where treasure trove has been detected. He said that, so far, the State has not approached the Centre or any Central agency to provide security to the temple. While replying to an urgent question from Palode Ravi of the Congress, who demanded that the government should declare the temple as a national pilgrim centre, the Minister said that the State Government cannot make any decisions on this since the treasure hunt was started following a directive from the Supreme Court. "The Government is willing to provide the funds for giving adequate security to the temple. The state police, police commandos and Rapid Action Force have been deployed in the temple,’’ said Sivakumar.The day-to-day security aspects are being monitored by a committee headed by ADGP Venugopal K Nair, which has Intelligence ADGP A Hemachandran, Internal Security IG S Ananthakrishnan and Range IG K Padmakumar as its members. The security has been provided without disturbing the daily rituals at the temple. Former Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan claimed that despite the claim that there is a strong presence of police team in and around the temple, over the last three days at a least half-a-dozen cases of chain-snatching had been reported. To this, the Minister said that the Government will act seriously on the cases of chain-snatching reported from the temple.