CIC wants Vishwanath Temple Trust chairman in a week

Lucknow, July 17 (UNI) In its first ever major decision, the Chief Information Commisioner of Uttar Pradesh today asked the state government to appoint a non-government Hindu as the chairman of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust within a week.

Wondering why UP could not find a suitable nominee for the post in two-and-a-half yrs, CIC Justice (retd) M A Khan today asked Principal Secretary (Religious Affairs) to move a file to the CM regarding the appointment of a chairman for the trust.

He felt the matter was not put before the chief minister by the department concerned, therefore, there was no appointment.

The CIC gave the decision on a petition filed by former state minister Shaturth Prakash, who had sought details from the government as to how the then Varanasi divisional commissioner was acting as the trust chairman. Prakash had invoked the Right to Information (RTI) Act to get details from the Trust about the rules guiding it.

Prakash told UNI that as per rule no IAS or government official could be appointed as the trust chairperson. ''But, the then Commissioner (Varanasi division) C N Dubey had laid the foundation of several projects at the temple with the foundation stone mentioning him as the chairman.

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