Jaipur: The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) Greater's plan to build a sports complex atop an underground parking lot at the Ramniwas Bagh has triggered a dispute. A portion of the proposed sports complex is slated to come up on the surface of the newly constructed parking lot on the north-eastern side. Representatives of the century-old and one of the oldest football clubs in India—the Union Football Club—have asserted ownership of the land.
"When Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) started construction of the parking lot, we handed over the ground on the written condition that the civic body would return the ground after completion of the project with a few agreed facilities. Even a year after the inauguration of the parking lot, we have not got back the land. And now, JMC Greater is claiming to construct a sports complex on our land," claimed Mahipal Swami, the Secretary of the Union Football Club.
Established on the holy day of Ramnavami on April 9, 1889, the Union Football Club is one of the oldest running football clubs in India. Until JDA took over the ground and shifted the club to a temporary ground on the western side of the Ramniwas Bagh in early 2020, club authorities used the land where the proposed sports complex is scheduled to come up.
Jitendra Shrimal, councillor of Ward 150 and the chairperson of the building permission committee of the JMC Greater—who has forwarded the idea of constructing the sports complex—claimed that he would talk to the club committee and ask them to continue on the present ground that JDA has allotted them. "There are a few reasons why this idea has been floated. First, safety and security. Anti-socials rule in these two plots of land every evening. The second reason is, of course, history. In Rajasthan, the first meeting of the RSS was held inside the Ramniwas Bagh. So we want to construct a sports complex in the name of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar," Shrimali added.
JMC Greater officials claimed that this is just a proposal from the councillor and they would move forward only after getting a nod from the concerned departments. "But the proposal is good. JMC Greater officially and I personally would take up the project with the state govt and get it approved," said Puneet Karnwat, the deputy mayor of JMC Greater.