HOURS BEFORE PATKAR’S FAST, MP DISMANTLES GANDHI SAMADHI

BHOPAL: Barely hours before N armada Bach ao Aandol an leader Medha Patkar started a hunger strike at Rajghat, the Gandhi Samadhi on the banks of Narmada river in Barwani, the district administration dismantled the structure for relocation.

Officials took away three urns containing the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba, and secretary Ma had ev Des ai during the operation carried out after Wednesday midnight.

“The urns were brought back amid protests,” Patkar, who has been at the forefront of agitations against dams on Narmada, and had announced her fast for rehabilitation of people affected by the projects, said on Thursday.

Gandhian Kashinath Trivedi had brought the ashes and setup the samadhi at Barwani in 1965.

With the gates of Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat closed last month, there are concerns that many areas in four Madhya Pradesh districts—Barwani, Khargone, Dhar and Alirajpur—will be sub merged. This necessitated the samadhi’s relocation, said a government official. But Patkar objected to the manner in which the operation was carried out.

“Shifting Gandhiji’s samadhi without the knowledge of the locals and without following due procedure is illegal and disrespectful towards Mahatma Gandhi .” Barwani collector TejaswiS Naik said the samadhi had to be relocated as the area faces the possibility of being submerged.