9 members appointed to Chengalvaraya Naicker Trust

CHENNAI: In an effort to revive the 145-year-old PT Lee Chengalvaraya Naicker Trust, the state government issued a Government Order (GO) to appoint nine members as its trustees.

According to the GO, Retired Judge A Kulasekaran had been appointed Chairman. Retired IAS officer G Sundaramurthi, one of the descendants of Chengalvaraya Naicker Arul, were other important members of the trust.

Recently, there were reports that the Rs 1,000 crore worth trust was plagued by maladministration and corruption and members of the trust alleged that non-Vanniyar members were not given due respect like the members of Vanniyar caste.

However, the Madras High Court in its order, dated May 11, this year, had instructed government to fill the vacancy as the tenure of the members ended on Sunday.

Based on the High Court direction, the state had appointed nine members according to the rules of the Trust.

According to Clause (4) of the Trust rules, one of the nine members should be a descendant and if there are no suitable persons, the post should be filled up by a person from Vanniyar community. Out of remaining eight, three should be from Vanniyar community, two should be public personalities, one each should be from administrative services and teaching community and retired High Court Judge will be the ex-officio chairman of the Trust.

The state government, in 2018, passed an act tilted The Tamil Nadu Vanniyakula Kshatriya Public Charitable Trusts and Endowments (Protection and Maintenance) Act, 2018, to protect the trusts created and administered by members of Vanniyar community. The Chengalvaraya Naicker Trust will be governed by the above Act and the appointment of members were carried out in accordance with the Act.

The Madras High Court in its order, dated May 11, this year, had instructed the state government to fill the vacancy as the tenure of the members ended on Sunday