Mumbai, Dt. 3
Tourism Minister Mangalprabhat Lodha assured here today that an independent ‘Gad-Durg Corporation’ will be set up in the next three months to preserve, conserve, protect and remove encroachments on all forts and forts in Maharashtra.
A ‘Gad-Durg Rakshakan Mahamorcha’ was organized in Mumbai on behalf of ‘Maharashtra Gad-Durg Rakshan Samiti’. This time, Lodha came to Azad Maidan and met the delegation of the committee. Speaking at that time, Lodha gave this assurance.
Lodha also said that the encroachments on all forts and forts will be removed by fixing a certain time limit, and after the budget session with regard to all the remaining demands, a meeting of all fort loving organizations will be organized with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
More than one and a half thousand Shiv lovers of Gad-Durg lovers organizations from across the state participated in the ‘Gad-Durg Rakshakan Mahamorchya’ organized by Maharashtra Gad-Durg Rakshana Samiti. In the march from Metro Cinema to Azad Maidan in Mumbai, Narveer Tanaji Malusare’s descendant Subhedar Kunal Malusare, Baji Prabhu Descendants of Deshpande Sandesh Deshpande, Dudhai Veer Darau Mata Gade Patil of Dharmaveer Sambhaji Maharaj and Amit Gade Descendants of Sarnobat Antojiraje Gade Patil, Akshay Bandal Descendants of Veer Koyaji Bandal, Vishwajit Deshpande Descendants of Moropant Pingle, Descendants of Krishnaji Gaikwad Appasaheb Gaikwad, Veer Shiva The participation of the descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaraya’s maternal uncles such as Anandrao Kashid, descendant of Kashid, Gaurav Bokiel, descendant of Pantajikaka Bokiel, was also noteworthy.
Ravindra Padwal of ‘Samast Hindu Bandhav Sangathan’, Ranjit Savarkar, Executive President of ‘Swatantryaveer Savarkar National Memorial’, Director of ‘Sri Parashuram Tapovan Ashrama’ in Vasai, Bhargava Shri B.P. Sachinwala, National President of ‘Dharmasabha-Vidvatsangha’ of Sri Majjgadguru Shankaracharya Pitha, Vedamurthy Dhananjaya Shastri Vaidya, All Hindu Brotherhood Organizations including Anuradha Wadekar, Missionary of ‘Sanatan Sanstha’, Shivrajyabhishek Committee, Maratha Warriors, Gad-Durg Improvement Association, Durgveer Pratishthan, Sri Shambhudurg Pratishthan, Shree Shivpratisthan Hindusthan, Shree Shivakarya Foundation, Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mandai, Raigad Conservation Foundation, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Ranragini (Women’s Branch), Yuva Maratha Federation, Shivvandaneshwar Foundation, Independent Savarna Sena, Hindu Dharma Awakening, Sanat Sanstha, All India Maratha Seva Federation , representatives of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh etc. were present.
Coordinator of ‘Maharashtra Gad-Durg Rakshan Samiti’ Sunil Ghanwat said, it was revealed in RTI that there were more than hundred unauthorized concrete constructions at Vishalgad. Similarly, houses, graves, dargahs, mosques and other types of encroachments have been illegally encroached on 35 important forts of the state including Raigad, Lohgad, Kolaba, Vandangad, Durgadi Fort. These encroachments on the forts of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj are not only offensive to the beliefs of Shiva lovers, but also cause great annoyance. Officials of Archeology Department who are responsible for this should be registered and legal action should be taken against them.
Drunkenness, mutilation, unsanitary etc. in the places of many forts should be stopped, and also the archeology department should pay attention to stop the large-scale collapse of many forts, dilapidated towers and cannons. The government should appoint sufficient staff for the conservation of the forts, and for the regular cleaning and sanctity of the forts, the government should take the help of fort-loving organizations. The Department of Archeology should launch a website that provides proper information and legal aspects of all the forts. There should be facility for citizens to complain. At this time, various demands were made to include the representatives working for the conservation of the forts, the descendants of the mavlas, the lovers of forts and Shiva lovers in the fort area in the corporation to be established for the protection of forts.
