The sordid state of the site where an Ambedkar Bhavan is coming up has infuriated Dalits in Bhuj.
The sordid state of the site where an Ambedkar Bhavan is coming up has infuriated Dalits in Bhuj. Tuesday being the birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Dalits took it as an opportunity to give vent to their anger.
The site has become a dumping ground for human waste, with a lavatory (urinal) constructed on the plot. "Amedkar is like a God to us and we take this poor maintenance by the BJP-run civic body as nothing but a wilful desecration of the land. It's an offence and we have decided to file a criminal complaint," Meghna Motharia, Mundra-based Dalit leader, said.
Motharia also said that the BJP was never in favour of constructing the bhavan at the plot since it was on a prime location. "Local BJP leaders tried every means at hands to ensure that the construction of the bhavan is shifted to some other site,'' he added.
District youth Congress president Naresh Maheshwari said that he would take up the issue at the party level. "We are not trying to politicise the issue ahead of parliamentary elections. We only intend to bring justice to the Dalits who, I believe, have been treated wrongly,'' he said.
The original scheme of constructing one Ambendkar bhavan at every district headquarters was mooted in 1991 by the then Congress chief minister Chimanbhai Patel and land at the present place was granted in 1993. A budget of Rs5 lakh was also made.
When contacted, AG Patel, R&B executive engineer, asked DNA to contact his assistant engineer Prjapati. Prajapati said that the building would be constructed in six months.
Admitting that the urinal was inside the site, he said he had sent his man to Bhuj municipality but could not get information from there. "The urinal first existed on the other side of the hospital road, but the owner of the plot got it shifted to this place. We are going to demolish it as it is an encroachment,'' he said.
Bhuj municipal president Devraj Gadhavi said he would shift the urinal outside the bhavan land.
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