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| RTI application moved seeking whereabouts of Maharaja's treasures | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Aug 19 : Bashir Assad, a local journalist and social activist has moved an application under the RTI Act seeking information about the undisclosed treasures of the last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir State, Maharaja Hari Singh. The treasures are believed to be worth thousands of crores.
The undisclosed treasures are believed to contain priceless crowns, necklaces, bracelets, rings, bangles, robes, golden swords, watches and toys left behind by the last Dogra ruler of the State. The application addressed to Toshkhana officer, Srinagar asks the government to provide information about whereabouts of these highly priced valuables.
The RTI application also seeks the copy of the evaluation of the treasures done by the international auctioneering firm, the Sotheby's in 1983, present status and name/designation of the official who holds the custody of these valuables at present.
Confirming the application, Assad said the current market value of the jewelry, crowns and family palace articles is calculated at around Rupees 100000 crore as the same had been evaluated on the directions of State High Court in 1983 and the market value so evaluated by expert was 5000 crores which has multiplied about twenty times by now.
The treasures originally were under custody of late Deewan Iqbal Nath till 1983 and thereafter nobody knows about the whereabouts of the treasures.
"Who knows whether the treasures are in safe hands or not? Why the successive governments in the State did not auction the treasures and invest the amount for infrastructure development of the state," the RTI applicant has said.
Assad also said there were two kinds of treasures, one comprising of valuables declared as State property and known to all, and the second comprising of the undisclosed treasures not known to anybody except Deewan Iqbal Nath and Brigadier Khuda Baksh.
"Undisclosed treasures were kept as a top secret for fear of being stolen from Lahore Qila. The treasures only came in public discourse in 1976 when during cleaning of Toshkhana the treasures were discovered in the basement of the dilapidated treasury," Assad said.
" Deewan Iqbal Nath was responsible for the treasures for 36 years, but in 1983 he expressed his concern about the custody of the treasures after his death."
Throughout this period (from 1947 to 1983), he ensured the safety of the treasure in the dilapidated Toshkhana. Call it the non-seriousness of the successive chief ministers of Jammu and
Kashmir or their inefficiency that they could not make use of this huge public property for the welfare and development of the state. By all accounts, a mystery still shrouds the undisclosed treasures |
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