Last year on 30th November, Supreme Court gave an
order mandating the nation anthem should be played before screening films in
theatres. And the person who fought the matter legally is a Bhopal based social
activist Shyam Narayan Chouksey.
But winning that battle was not enough to cheer Mr. Chouksey
patriotism. Now he is battling up with another issue on which almost every
Indian will provide support to Mr. Chouksey, 77, who retired as an engineer
with the Central Warehousing Corporation in 2000. This time he has filed a PIL
in Delhi Highcourt against the irregularities which has caused Mahatma Gandhi’s
memorial ‘Rajghat’ to remain in bad conditions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself hails from Mahatma
Gandhi’s land of Gujarat is singing songs of Swacch Bharat but his own
government has failed to keep the memorial of ‘Father of nation’ in good
condition. According to an RTI, over Rs 4 crores are being spent on the
maintenance of Rajghat annually, still things are not at place there.
Entering Bapu’s memorial Rajghat makes the petitioner
SN Chouksey, angry as all he sees there is cigarette sticks, damaged wooden
pieces, broken tiles, cracked taps, plastic wrappers and dirty toilets which in
turn become breeding place for mosquitoes. He has also found that the white marble
closer to the monument has gone black due to lack of cleaning and the green
carpet has got damaged. In his own words “Bapu used to tell that Swacchta
cleanliness is more important than Swadhinta (Independence) but his own Samadhi
is craving for that. Where is the allocated money going?” He is also not happy
with keeping a donation box near to Mahatma’s Samadhi.
In the petition filed through advocates Abhinav Shrivastava
and Sameer Jain, Chouksey submitted photos of the various deficiencies that he
had come across when he had visited the monument in past few years, when he
claims the situation had worsened.
He sought directions to MoUD to "stringently apply
principles of cleanliness and sanitation at the Rajghat Samadhi, failing which
the Ministry should be held liable and penalised for the same and to issue
strict instructions to the President and Secretary of the Rajghat Samadhi
Committee to perform their duties strictly as provided under the Act and Rules
and to make the Rajghat Samadhi a world class monument".
The petition has also sought directions to the Rajghat Samadhi Committee "to carry out repair and maintenance work. To ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of the Samadhi a mechanism should be evolved by MoUD so that once the things are set right at the Samadhi similar situation should not develop again in future. For this, the government may form an independent committee of experts such as civil engineer, public health engineer, expert from horticulture department and expert in Gandhian philosophy."
The petition has also sought directions to the Rajghat Samadhi Committee "to carry out repair and maintenance work. To ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of the Samadhi a mechanism should be evolved by MoUD so that once the things are set right at the Samadhi similar situation should not develop again in future. For this, the government may form an independent committee of experts such as civil engineer, public health engineer, expert from horticulture department and expert in Gandhian philosophy."
According to him, he has fought for 11 long years to make sure
National Anthem being played in movie theatres and he will not stop until the
holy place gets its glory back. So far, in total 6 hearings has been happened
at Delhi Highcourt over the same matter and he is hopeful that it won’t take
too long to reach out to a conclusion, unlike before. Mr. Chouksey used to
visit Rajghat thrice a year, he captures pictures there and submit the same in
court.
Being a Gandhiwaadi, cleanliness always remain in his
priority list and he believes one day India will become clean as Bapu wished
for long ago.
