Varanasi, Jun 21 (IANS): Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Deepak Agarwal has been appointed the first director of the directorate of religious affairs (DRA), headquartered in Varanasi.

This comes six months after the state cabinet approved a proposal to set up the directorate.

According to UP minister of state (independent charge) for religious affairs and tourism, Neelkanth Tiwari, "The commissioner of Varanasi division has been given additional charge as director of DRA. The procedure for selecting a site for a DRA office in the vicinity of Kashi Vishwanath Dham (corridor) has begun and construction would begin after the site is finalized."

Director Deepak Agrawal said, "Apart from setting up office, recruiting staff for the office has become top priority."

The state cabinet on December 11, 2020 had approved the proposal to set up DRA to ease administrative functioning in promoting religious sites as tourism hubs.

As per the decision, the DRA headquarters would be established with the help of Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board (KVSADB) and the DRA's sub-office would be set up at Kailash Mansarovar office building in Ghaziabad.

The minister said, as the holy city was the cultural capital, seat of learning, birth and work place of legendary individuals, it was selected to house the first DRA office.

He said the ground for establishing DRA had already been prepared in 2019. Since the inception of the religious affairs department in 1985, the absence of a directorate created hurdles in implementation of government schemes despite being responsible for maintenance and infrastructural development of religious, cultural, historical and architectural buildings around religious sites.

Neelkanth Tiwari also mentioned how the state government had worked to improve facilities for devotees at key pilgrimage sites, including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura-Vrindavan, Chitrakoot and Vindhyachal.