The Ministry of Home Affairs reorganised its departments, delegating the charge of the Ayodhya desk to the Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh (JKL) Affairs Division, according to an internal order of the Ministry.
Earlier, all matters relating to the Ayodhya dispute and the litigation in the Supreme Court were handled by the Internal Security Division-II. The order says the Internal Security Division-II has been merged with the Internal Security Division-I.
The JKL Division is headed by Additional Secretary Gyanesh Kumar, who played a key role in the decision to withdraw the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split the erstwhile State into two UTs.
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“The Ayodhya matters and the related court judgments will be put up by the Deputy Secretary to the Additional Secretary (JKL) through the Joint Secretary (JKL),” the order reads.
Joint Secretary (Women Safety) Punya Salila Srivastava has been given the additional charge of the merged Internal Security Division-I.
The Ministry is working on the modalities for establishing a trust for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, as mandated by the Supreme Court in its November 9, 2019 ruling in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case. The trust must to be set up within three months of the order.
The court asked the government to formulate a scheme with provisions for setting up a trust, with a board of trustees or any other appropriate body, the functioning of the trust, the powers of the trustees, land transfer to the trust and all other matters.
