HC stays work near Bapu's memorial

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court stayed the construction of a jewellery showroom in Porbandar because it was within 100m of Kirti Mandir, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi adjacent to his birthplace.
A bench of Chief Justice R S Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi ordered that construction work be halted in response to a PIL by local resident objecting to it. The petitioner, Shashikant Raniga, claimed that the construction was under way without permission from the archaeology department and was within 100m of Kirti Mandir, a monument of national significance.

The petitioner contended that two brothers, Sandip Pratapbhai and Jayesh Pratapbhai, bought a house in the area and were building a two-storeyed jewellery showroom without permission from the authorities.

The PIL stated that when the developers sought permission for construction, the chief officer of the Porbandar municipality had given a negative opinion. However, the president of the municipality granted permission with the condition that the developers get clearance from the archaeology department. The developers started construction work claiming that they had got permission but the district collector quashed the municipality president's order. The construction still did not stop. This led to the filing of the PIL before the high court, said Ashish Dagli, the petitioner's advocate.

Dagli said that although the monument is not listed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the state archaeology department has to intimate it about construction near it and get the structural design approved, because this is a monument of national importance.

After a preliminary hearing, the HC ordered the municipality and developers to maintain the status quo and sought a reply from the authorities concerned, including the state archaeology department and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Further hearing is posted for June 20.