Committee finally formed after 6-month delay to clear fort encroachments in Kolhapur
Kolhapur, Maharashtra – The state government had issued an order regarding all the forts and fortresses in the state, under which a government circular was circulated in January to appoint a committee in each district under the chairmanship of the District Collector to remove encroachments from all forts and citadels. Taking action on this after a delay of six full months, the Kolhapur district administration has finally established the committee. In this 14-member committee headed by the District Collector, 10 members are administrative officers and 4 members are non-official members. The Resident Deputy Collector has been appointed as its member secretary.
These four non-official members include Pramod Patil and Ram Yadav of the ‘Kolhapur Hill Riders Foundation’, Santosh Hasurkar of ‘Durgaveer Pratishthan’, Gadhinglaj and Amit Adsul, a Modi script researcher from Kolhapur.
- In reality, this committee was supposed to carry out the encroachment removal drive in a time-bound manner by 31 May, and submit periodic progress reports to the government; however, the committee has been constituted in July. The committee will now hold its first meeting, following which direct action will be initiated after reviewing the encroachment data.
- Regarding this matter, the Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh State Co-ordinator of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Shri. Sunil Ghanwat, said, “Out of this 14-member committee, 10 members are government officials. Ideally, there should have been a higher representation of members from organisations that work directly on the ground for these forts. It would have been far more justified if those non-official members who have actually been working tirelessly for the forts for many years had been given greater representation. Instead of this lopsided ratio, the committee should have prioritized the people who have spent years doing the actual work. Now, this committee must hold its meetings without any delay, swiftly clear the encroachments from these forts, and reassure the followers of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”
