In October Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal for a larger ashram complex had caused much anxiety among Trustees and residents, with the ashramwasis — third or fourth generation of ashram residents —sitting on protests fearing eviction. So far, of the 263 ashramwasis, at least 50 have been awarded compensation for alternative homes.
The Gujarat government has set a deadline of three-year for the development of Sabarmati Ashram, but a key challenge lies in bringing on board the multiple stakeholders.
The six Trusts who own the land, the ashramwasis whose successive generations have been living on its premises since Mahatma Gandhi’s time and who now have to be relocated, and the organisations that work out of the larger ashram area.
Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, K Kailashnathan, who heads the Executive Council for the Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project told “The priority is to relocate the ashram residents. Some 50 residents have taken compensation for alternate homes. We are offering them tenements of which they will have complete ownership. We are also buying flats to allot to them. Today they are living in homes that are on lease from various Trusts.”
The six Trusts that are custodians of the 55-acre land that the government plans to redevelop for the memorial project are the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust (SHAT), Khadi Gramodyog Prayog Samiti (KGPS), Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Trust (SAGT), Gujarat Harijan Sevak Sangh (GHSS) and the Gujarat Khadi Gramodyog Mandal. “The process for securing land from the Trusts is on,”
The government recently wrote to all the six Trusts, assuring them that there would be no “governmentalisation (sarkarikaran)” of the space. In response, the Trusts have “in principle, agreed to going ahead with the project”, . There is no outright rejection from any Trust”, they said.
As part of the project that’s being funded by the Union Ministry of Culture, Ashram Road, one of Ahmedabad’s busiest arterial roads that connects the Kochrab and Sabarmati ashrams, will be “severed” and turned into a pedestrian promenade, said Ahmedabad-based consultant Bimal Patel, whose firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd (HCPDPMPL) is executing the project. The idea, said Patel, is to “unite the two sides of the ashram” that is spread on either side of this road.