The five-year-old terminal in Varanasi is not being used, yet efforts are being made to build more terminals and land is being acquired for this.
मोदी के ड्रीम प्रोजेक्ट के लिए बनारस में हड़पी जा रही है जमीन
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Multi-Modal Terminal (MMT) on the river Ganges in Varanasi in November 2018 at a grand ceremony. It was then announced that this terminal would be part of a grand national waterway project to transport millions of tonnes of cargo through our major rivers. But the reality is that only three ships passed through this terminal in 2018-19 and not even one in 2020-21, while a loan of Rs 1400 crore was taken from the World Bank for this project.
The government has now come up with a new plan for Varanasi, under which it is to be made an inter-modal hub in which rail, road and river transport will be interconnected. As a first step, the British multinational company Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) proposed to develop an Inter Model Station (IMS) near Rajghat, between the confluence of the Varuna and Ganga rivers. As per the DPR submitted by PwC, 30.8 acres of land is required to develop this station.
Varanasi based Survey Seva Sangh was demolished
The government has overcome this problem to some extent by acquiring 8.7 acres of valuable land from the Sarva Seva Sangh, established to propagate the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. On August 12, 2023, a large contingent of UP and Railway Police forcefully entered the Sarva Seva Sangh campus and demolished a dozen buildings including its library. For the remaining 21 acres, the government is eyeing the land of the Krishnamurti Foundation, which is adjacent to the Sarva Seva Sangh campus and comes under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India.
Since the project site is also adjacent to the Rajghat archaeological site which includes two historical monuments – a beautiful tomb of Lal Khan and an excavation on the lines of Sarnath carried out by the archeology department of BHU, the DPR demands that the commissioner of ASI ‘ Allow construction within the restricted and protected area. The DPR states that this permission should be given within the next four months.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has been asked to seek permission from the Allahabad High Court so that they can build within 200 meters of the high flood plain of the Ganga. It may be noted that the Allahabad High Court had passed an order that no construction would be allowed in the floodplains of the Ganga and especially on the high flood plain. In fact, heavy construction along the Beas, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river banks has been found to be one of the major reasons for the heavy loss of life and property in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during the last two months.
Environmental activist Aflatoon, president of ‘Samajwadi Jan Parishad’ and campaigning to protect the cultural and historical heritage of Varanasi, said that ‘the DPR of PwC shows that a major part of IMS comes under HFP. It is shocking that a British multinational company is pushing for a project that will destroy the delicate environment of Varanasi.’ The DPR urged the National Board for Wildlife to relocate the turtle sanctuary at Rajghat at the earliest. Having said.
J. The history of Krishnamurti’s Rajghat Study Center is almost a century old. This land was taken from the then Ministry of Defense before the independence of India. Spread over 300 acres, the center has earned itself a reputation as a premier center for the dissemination of knowledge and education. The center also runs the Rajghat Besant School and the Vasant College for Women which has 3,000 students. The center is also engaged in community service apart from running a school for 300 students from nearby villages.
Partha Chatterjee, registrar of the Rajghat Study Center, expressed apprehension over the manner in which Sarva Seva Sangh would be demolished, saying, “We have not received any formal notice of land acquisition from the government. The whole situation is unclear. We do not know what is in the mind of the government. I am in touch with Varanasi commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma who is overseeing all this work.
Physicist P. Krishna, secretary in-charge of the Rajghat study center and head of the science department at BHU, is also apprehensive. He says, “More than 5,000 students study in our colleges and schools. His parents will not tolerate any move that disturbs the peace of this holy place. Krishna is currently the trustee and resides in the campus. But other employees of the study center openly say that the government has listed the land from the main entrance to the riverside hostel on the right and the garage on the left for acquisition.
Professor Rana P.B., who specializes in Cultural Landscape and Heritage Studies in the Department of Geography, BHU. Lions are scared. He says, “The holy traditions of Varanasi are being systematically destroyed by none other than the Prime Minister who is a Lok Sabha member from here. It’s not that people here don’t know what’s going on.
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