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Journalism of Courage
SURAT, March 8: Having spent lakhs of rupees on filling the historic Gopi talav with garbage, the Surat Municipal Corporation is now digging it to restore the monument’s pristine glory.
“It is criminal negligence on part of the corporation’s elected wing, which adopted a resolution to turn the historic site into a dumping ground’, despite the Centre’s directive in 1993, asking all the local bodies to preserve ponds and talav’ and dig new ones,” says professor Hakumat Desai, a trustee of the Prakritik Jivan Suraksha Trust, who has made several representations to the Surat Municipal Corporation and the government, urging them to “preserve the historic monument”.
Former mayor Ajit Desai says the decision to fill the talav was taken during his tenure. “The idea behind filling the talav was to develop it as amusement park on the lines of Appu Ghar. A boundary wall was constructed to protect it from encroachers”.
“While part of the talav was filled during the Congress regime, the BJP completed the remaining,” says former mayor Fakirbhai Chauhan, adding “if the talav is being renovated, it is a good decision. I always wanted a talav there.”
It was only after Desai demanded an inquiry, alleging clandestine dealing between builders’ lobby and elected representatives of SMC, the civic officials sought opinion of the Archaeological Survey of India whether the talav had any archaeological significance.
Prof Desai had demanded why the decision to fill the talav was taken by the elected wing and why the contract to fill the talav was allotted to particular contractor.
The talav, built in 15th century by a local king known as Malek Gopi, is today one of the largest open spaces (about 9.6 hectare) in the inner city of Surat.
Asked how the civic body plans to develop Gopi talav, zonal officer M D Daruwala, who is supervising the renovation work says, “As of now we want to remove all garbage from the talav which is in cross shape. The decision as to how to develop the open space will be left to elected wing. Almost 80 per cent of the garbage has been removed”.
There is a temple right in the middle of the talav – Jal Devi (goddess of temple).
However, the elected wing is divided on the issue. The civic body has prepared two plans either to build a sports complex or a shopping complex with a multi-purpose hall. Hansmukh Jogani, Chief whip of SMC who represents Gopipura area, suggests that the talav should be developed as a sports complex. “There is no open space in old city area. A shopping mall should be developed there”, he says.
A senior councillor, asking anonymity, claims that the builders lobby is for a shopping mall. “The SMC engineers have already prepared a plan to develop it into “most feasible way. This indicates that the body wants to develop the open space as a shopping mall.
