Hyderabad: Overgrown bushes make Bapu Ghat a den for illicit activities

HYDERABAD: Seven years on, plans of the Telangana government to develop Bapu Ghat, where Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed, on the lines of Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, continues to remain on paper.
In the absence of regular maintenance, the memorial dedicated to the father of the nation – sitting barely kilometers away from the Golconda Fort where the government is set to celebrate the 75th Independence Day -- has become a den for nefarious activities, say locals. This, especially since it has been shut for visitors of late, they add.
The 68-acre Bapu Ghat in Langer Houz is opened only for VVIPs on two occasions --Mahatma Gandhi’s birth and death anniversaries.
“Since the ghat is shut for visitors for the past few months, it has become a home to all anti-social elements,” said a local resident of Nalanda Nagar In 2014, the state government announced tall plans of adding another hall to the premises, along with putting up a spinning wheel (Charakha) and a museum to display rare images of Mahatma and books donated by individuals, for public viewing. But nothing has moved on the ground. In fact, when TOI visited the site recently it found that the area was covered in overgrown bushes and the memorial yearning for an uplift.
Officials of Telangana Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) that oversees the upkeep of the ghat blamed it on the Covid-19 pandemic. “Before the pandemic, the ghat was open for school children among other visitors on a daily basis. Now, due to the pandemic, we have restricted the entry and open it only on October 2 and January 31 for official events,” said Uppala Srinivas Gupta, chairman, TTDC, while dismissing any plans of a facelift.
TTDC officials said that maintenance of Bapu Ghat was leased out to a private firm -- Visual Quest India Pvt Limited -- for 15 years in 2012.
“Bapu Ghat has large lawns that now have wild and overgrown grass. Since it is monsoon, we have not been able to use manual equipment to cut the grass. However, the entire premises is under CCTV surveillance through which anti-social elements, if any, can be eliminated,” said Birad Rajaram Yajnik, managing director of the firm. Also the curator of the Mahatma Gandhi Digital Museum Store, Yajnik said that before the pandemic, the firm conducted several events related to Mahatma Gandhi.