Times of India: Ahmedabad: Tuesday,
April 19, 2016.
A Jain nun in
Chaumukhini Pol in the walled city - central to Ahmedabad's nomination as World
Heritage City by Unesco - is scripting a courageous campaign against illegal
construction. Her fight is against the powerful building mafia which is sys
tematically targeting the city's historical core, frantically pulling down
heritage homes, replacing them with commercial complexes or godowns and
deteriorating the way of life in the pols.
Maitri
Ratnashri Maharajsahib's weapon in this fight is the RTI Act. She and her team
of young followers have filed over 115 RTIs in the past six months to collect
evidence to show inaction of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) despite
thousands of citizens alerting it about illegal activities.
"If we
lose our heritage, we will lose ourselves. Our culture and tradition will stay
only if we exist in that place. That's why we call the walled city a living
heritage," says Maitri Ratnashri, who incidentally is not even a permanent
resident of the pols.
Since April
last year, the Jain sadhvi has mobilised people to file 17,500 petitions in AMC
to stop illegal constriction and collected evidenc about the same in at least a
dozen pols including Vaghan ni pol, Zaveriwad, Saudagar pol, Ratan pol,
Chaumukhi ni pol, Rupasur chand ni pol, Patasha pol and Leheriya pol.
The sadhvi
says she started the fight for 3,000-odd Jain families living in the pols but
is now dedicated to each of 3.7 lakh people residing in walled city.
Many families
were contemplating shifting out of the walled city because of commer cial
complexes eating away pol chowks or squa res for parking.
"There
are 115 centuries-old Jain temples in walled city that comprise 80% of Jain
temples in Ahmedabad. If people start moving out who will then come to these
temples. It is the same problem for Hindus and Muslims too," she says.
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