Despite witnessing increasing rush of pilgrims to the cave shrine of Mata Vaishno devi, nestled in Trikuta hills, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine board authorities (SMVSB) have detected entry of large quantity of impure gold/silver offerings inside the sanctum sanctorum — the holy cave-housing three natural rock formations called the Pindies.
Between 2008-09 and 2012-13 a total quantity of 193.5 kg of gold was offered at the holy cave shrine. Ironically, when the Shrine board authorities shifted the total quantity of gold offerings to Govt of India Mint in Mumbai for melting, refining ,assaying and fabrication of gold coins, only 150.5 kg of pure gold was retrieved. A huge chunk of 43 kg of gold was found to be impure.
On the other hand, ever since the total pilgrimage has touched landmark figure of 1 crore the total receipts of the Shrine board have been sky rocketing. Between 2008-09 and 2013-14 (till September) total receipts under various heads amounted to Rs 1329.19 crores.
Donations/offerings between 2008-09 and 2013-14 (up to September) amounted to 597.23 crores. 152.42 crores was received by the shrine board in 2012-13. 1.4 Crore pilgrims had visited the cave shrine in 2012 while 93.24 lakh pilgrims visited the shrine in 2013.The pilgrim traffic had crossed 1 crore mark in 2011 recording 101.15 lakh devotees.
This information has been made public by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine board in response to an RTI application filed by Jammu based RTI activist Raj Kumar. According to a similar RTI query, "out of 8163.5 kgs of silver offerings received in the holy shrine between 2008-09 and 2011-12 only 2381.98 kgs of silver was retrieved at Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India ltd,Delhi (MMTC ltd). 5781.52 KG of silver offerings were found out to be impure during the complete process".
The Shrine board authorities have also revealed total details of cash offerings/donations between 2008-09 till 2013-14 (september). According to the RTI reply," a total sum of Rs 597.23 crores was received by the shrine board in the last five years under the head of donations. Since 2010 the holy cave shrine has been collecting over 100 crores in cash. The Shrine board earned 291.47 crores out of 'sale' during the same period while earned Rs 123.42 crores as Rent and whopping sum of Rs 317.07 was received by the board under miscellaneous head, the RTI reply furnished by the shrine board has revealed.