By IANS,
Srinagar : The Jammu and Kashmir government has transferred Arun Kumar, principal secretary to the governor and chief executive officer of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), to the general administration department following his controversial statement about the allotment of forest land to the shrine authorities.
According to an administrative order issued here, Kumar has been recalled from his assignment at the Raj Bhavan and attached till further orders to the general administration department.
B.B. Vyas, the state commissioner and secretary (finance), will replace Kumar as principal secretary to the governor.
Kumar triggered a controversy when he stated that the SASB would construct concrete structures on the land allotted to it by the state government. The government maintained the allotment was purely temporary and the SASB could not to build concrete structures on it.
Following Kumar’s statement, several parties and Muslim organisations in the Kashmir Valley have been protesting the land allotment even as Hindu organisations in Jammu and elsewhere in the country have come out in support of the move.