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| Why is Govt silent on Maharaja Hari Singh's Treasure? Peerzada Ummer | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 1: The stoic silence of the successive regimes in Jammu and Kashmir about the status of the treasure that Maharaja Rulers left behind in the state has become a cause of worry for many. There are apprehensions about the decaying of that great treasure, the value of which would not be at present less than 10 billion rupees.
The great treasure, as per reports, contained a glittering ring studded with all the traditional nine gems arranged around a 10-carat diamond worth approximately Rs ten million.
Two diamond necklaces containing 200 blue diamonds, estimated at Rs ten million. Hundreds of rubies from Sri Lanka and Burma. The treasure treasures 20,000 pearls which is the largest known collection of them, mostly imported from Basra and other cities of Iraq.
Rudraksha beads with a rare single furrow and even twin beads.
There are also the two boxes from the trove containing 67,000 tolas (1 tola-11.66 gm) of gold were donated to the National Defense Fund in 1963 in response Jawaharlal Nehru's nation-wide appeal for donation of gold following the Chinese attack.
Meanwhile, ironic is that the state government has paid to heed to the repeated pleas of the experts who have been pitching for the greater efforts for the preservation of the treasure. Till date there has been no concrete effort made by the government in the state in which the treasure could have been preserved with utmost efforts.
The government in the year 1983 had made a list of all the items which included necklaces, diamonds, rubies, emeralds etc. At that time, a French expert Sotheby Reyner was brought in to evaluate the jewels whose cost was summed up at Rs 500 crores back then.
In 1947 some eight trucks of the Maharaja's jewel possessions were left behind in Jammu Toshkhana which was later shifted to Srinagar in 1951. Some retired officials even say that a part of the treasure was utilised for financial stability by the government of India after Indo-China War of 1962. The official records of the presence of these jewels in the government treasuries were maintained till 1983 but after that there is no clue of the same.
The government till date has not come clear that whether it has auctioned the treasure for the execution of the developmental projects in the state. It is even not revealed how much preserved is the treasure and how much of the treasure has been usurped upon by the powers that be. And, where are these jewels now?
Even, Dr. Karan Singh, Maharaja Hari Singh's son claimed his right on the treasure, which the Supreme Court of India did not approve of. Seemingly, the state government still continues to be the custodian of this priceless legacy.
It is surprising that the successive governments headed by NC, Congress, PDP and present by BJP-PDP has maintained silence about the present condition of the treasure. "We really hope that during the coming assembly session, the issue shall be raised in the legislative assembly and concreted efforts are made so that people would come to know what has happened to our great past," says Zameer Ahmad, a research scholar on Kashmir history. |
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