Times of
India: Ahmedabad: Friday, 06 March 2020.
It’s
been three months since a 250-year-old and 15-feet tall Mughal era heritage
wall and gate at Geeta Mandir bus stand was demolished by Gujarat State Road
Transport Corporation (GSRTC). However, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
(AMC) is yet to launch any inquiry into the incident, according to the latest
RTI reply in the issue.
The
civic authorities had stood as mute spectators when it gave the GSRTC
development permission to build at the site, and in November last year,
contractors had pulled down the historic wall. The AMC had back then claimed
that it had withdrawn the development permission ‘rajja chhiti’ for the second
phase of the central bus stand project after the incident. Munaf Ahmed, the RTI
applicant in the issue says, “Clearly AMC had given development permission to
the GSRTC, despite its own heritage department warning against demolition of
the wall. On what basis was the development permission issued, is surely a
matter of investigation,” opines Ahmed. The RTI reply also denies of any report
available with them pertaining to the issue.
On
July 25, 2016, the GSRTC, through an official order, had allowed the
contractor, M/s Hubtown Limited, to demolish the ‘old gate’ for Rs 44,945 and
the scrap value of the rubble was estimated to be Rs 1.31 lakh. The contractor
was to salvage an amount of Rs 86,936 from the entire jobwork.
In
a letter dated March 22, 2018, heritage conservation committee chairman P K
Ghosh wrote to Sonal Mishra, chairman of GSRTC, that there is an ‘old
structure’ which happens to be in the vicinity of the buffer zone of the
historic city.
Soon
after the wall was demolished in November, municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra
had deputed a team of town development and estate officers to inspect the site
and look for all relevant permissions issued by the AMC. The AMC had also urged
the GSRTC to salvage the second gate present on the north side of the compound
and make it part of the development plan.
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