THRISSUR: The Guruvayur Devaswom management committee meeting on Thursday decided to auction Mahindra Thar again, based on the order of devaswom commissioner. The date would be announced later.
The auction of Mahindra Thar, offered to Guruvayur temple by Mahindra Group MD Anand Mahindra, had sparked a row after just one person participated in it. An Ernakulam native won the bid for Rs 15.1 lakh while the auction began with a bid of Rs 15 lakh. The devaswom had announced the winner but the procedures to hand over the vehicle were cancelled as the devaswom commissioner had to ratify the process.
As per the norms for auctioning any item priced above Rs 5,000, permission of the commissioner is mandatory. Here the devaswom management committee announced the auction before approval. When the issue sparked a row, then Devaswom chairman K B Mohandas said the vehicle would be handed over once the commissioner gave his nod.
Devaswom chairman V K Vijayan on Thursday said the commissioner’s directive came after the public hearing. “The person who won the auction also took part in the hearing along with others who raised opposition to the single party auction,” he said, adding that the auction will tentatively take place in the first week of June