Extending support to the state’s plan for Gandhi Ashram redevelopment, Harijan Sevak Sangh Thursday submitted before the Gujarat High Court that it expects that one of its trustees will be accommodated in the governing council of the new government-initiated trust Mahatma Gandhi Sabarmati Ashram Memorial Trust (MGSAMT).
The submission came during the hearing of the public interest litigation by Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who is opposing the project.
The five existing trusts —Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Khadi Gramodyog Samiti Trust, Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust (SHAT), Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Trust and Harijan Sevak Sangh — which own and manage the erstwhile 120-acre Gandhi Ashram area, have given their approval to the project in-principle.
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Meanwhile, SAPMT, represented by senior counsel Mihir Joshi, submitted before the HC that the trust had given its in-principle nod to the project while being fully aware of what it shall entail and said it has no reason to not believe the state’s assurances. Senior counsel Joshi submitted, “Government was well aware of the apprehensions and in a round of meeting this was clarified that there is no question of governmentalisation of the Ashram…”