Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Jan 31: In a historic moment, Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh today released three commemorative coins specially designed to mark the silver jubilee of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) in New Delhi today.
The coins, which had been specially designed by the Reserve Bank of India were released by the Prime Minister in presence of Governor, N.N. Vohra, who is also the Chairman of the Board, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and President, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Dr. Karan Singh.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the coins, of the denominations of Rs 5 and Rs 10 had the embossing of the form of the revered Mata Vaishno Devi ji.
“The coins of the denomination of Rs 5 and Rs 10 would be circulation coins and available across the country. The third category of Rs 25 coin would be non-circulation coins and these would be available from authorized places only as prescribed by the SMVDSB”, sources said.
They stated that the Shrine Board had been pursuing the matter pertaining to the release of these coins for the past several months. ” The matter was actually taken up with the present President, who was then Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who after detailed deliberations with the officials of Reserve Bank of India had given the consent of his Ministry”.
After clearance from the then Finance Minister, the issue was also discussed in the Prime Minister Office (PMO) for final clearance. “The PMO also extended all their support to the proposal and gave its nod for the release of the commemorative coins”, sources said.
Subsequently, the matter was again taken up with Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram after he took charge of his Ministry recently. Thereafter, the schedule was worked out for release of the stamp in coordination with officials of his Ministry.
“Another rare gesture of the Finance Ministry was its nod to production plan for the Government mint for making one billion coins. According to the statistical information available, it is very rare that the commemorative coins like this are mint in this quantity”, sources said, adding, “the proposal to mint such quantity of coins was submitted by the Shrine Board”.
The function was also attended by the representatives from Ministry of Finance and RBI.
The SMVDSB came into being in August 1986 to manage the services and the round-the-year pilgrimage to the highly revered shrine. Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference-led coalition Government later ratified the Governor’s initiative through the Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988. Under the provisions of the law, the Governor acts as Chairman and appoints not more than 10 persons as members of the board.
The main objective of the Act was to provide for better management and governance of the shrine and its endowments, including the appurtenant lands and buildings, previously managed by a private religious body.
An all time high 1.04 crore pilgrims visited holy cave shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ji during 2012 recording an increase of 3.79 lakh over 2011.
Earlier, it was in 2011 that yatra to the cave shrine located between Trikuta Hills had crossed 1 crore for the first time. This was the second consecutive year when the pilgrimage remained above one crore mark.
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