Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust Meeting Advanced to July 6

The next meeting of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has been advanced to July 6 from July 11 where the fate of Trust’s general secretary Champat Rai and member Anil Mishra is likely to be decided.

All 14 members of the Trust have been asked to remain available on July 6.

The Trust is headed by Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the 87-year-old saint from the temple town.

The trust may also decide if the restructuring of day-to-day operations and supervision at a higher level is needed to ensure complete transparency.

A decision on adding more people to the body could be taken as a replacement for Raja Ayodhya (Bimalendra Mohan Mishra), the Trust member who passed away in Aug last year.

Trust members are also expected to take up the existing crowd management system to come up with the strategy to improve the experience of visitors.

“We need to add more facilities and amenities to protect devotees from extreme heat. Summer season is getting harsher and we have to plan by bringing experts on board,” a trust member said.

Sources said that the “emergency meeting” had been convened at the behest of the treasurer of the Trust, Govind Dev Giri.

In his intimation letter to the Trust members, Giri said that the date of the meeting had been preponed as important issues had to be taken up.

Registered with the income tax department through notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in May 2020, the Trust has four ex-officio members representing the Centre and the state govt.

The last meeting took place on March 21 in which the key agenda was the preparation for Ram Navami celebrations.

The meeting is held every three months.

“All this while, no transparency was being maintained. Only a handful of trust office-bearers were running the show with complete authority over all the internal matters. No record or documents were shared with others. With faith of the devotees shaken, we need to introduce checks and balances at multiple levels. More layers will be added to the overall decision-making process,” a source said.

Earlier on June 27, Giri confirmed that both Rai and Mishra had tendered resignation.