Chennai | As many as 21 temples spread across Tamil Nadu earn a total revenue of Rs 17.76 crore annually, through the interest generated under the state government's gold monetisation scheme, State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P K Sekar Babu has said.

Gold ornaments, weighing 1,074 kg, offered as donations to various temples and lying unutilised, were melted into bars and deposited with the SBI's gold investment scheme under the names of the respective temples.

Gold weighing 53.38 kg from four temples in Kancheepuram district viz. Sri Kamakshi Amman temple, Subrahmanyaswamy temple, Kundrathur, Nithyakalyanaperumal temple in Tiruvidanthai, and Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal Temple in Tirumalaivaiyavur, were handed over to the SBI on October 12, in the presence of retired Supreme Court judge Dorai Swamy Raju, state Ministers, and government officials.

Also, 378.6 kg of gold from 12 temples will be deposited with the bank in the next phase, the Minister informed.

In a release here on Monday, he said government orders would be issued soon to execute the gold deposit scheme in Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple, Madurai, Bannari Amman temple, Erode, and Kariyakaliaman temple in Tiruppur.

The interest earned from the gold monetisation scheme would be used to carry out improvement works to the temples