HUMOR,
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To understand and appreciate the bizarreness of this story you need to step back in time. Way back in time. Near a small village called Underi (not to be confused with the bustling suburb Andheri), off the coast of Maharashta, stood a fort. The fort was built 300 years back and legend has it that it was used by Shivaji in his fight against the British. Somewhere down the line the ruler of the area gave away the fort to the residents of Underi for safe-keep.
Ever since then the fort has been taken care of by the villagers. Now all this while nobody has given a tiny rats ass about the fort. The district administration, the state government, the central government, the Archeological Survey of India and all other government, semi-government and quasi-government bodies couldn't have cared less for the fort.
Evidently nobody thought that it was ridiculous that a bunch of villagers who's primary concern is probably to provide for the basic necessities of life like food, shelter and clothing should have to maintain a FORT! At some point of time, I imagine, the villagers got sick of the fort and decided to get rid of it. So in 1972 they made their first move and had the status of the fort changed from "historical monument" to "non-agricultural land". Once again nobody in the government or bureaucracy wondered as to why the villagers were so keen on changing the status of a fort. Nor were any eyebrows raised at how a fort built 300 years ago could, logically be classified as "non-agricultural land".
Anyway, for the next 34 years the villagers tried selling the fort to someone. Now selling a fort is not like selling your old newspapers. I think it's kind of tough to hide the fact that a fort is under sale for 3 decades. So what do you think the government and the bureaucracy did? NOTHING!
After several failed attempts the villagers finally managed to seal the fort for just Rs 2 crores to a real estate developer. To put things in perspective Rs 2 crores would probably fetch you a decent 2 bedroom apartment in Bandra, a suburb of Bombay. After the sale the buyer walked into the registrars office to register the deal and pay stamp duty on the sale. So what do you think the government and the bureaucracy did? NOTHING!
Finally now that everything is over and done with, everybody seems to have woken up at once. A flurry of activities have taken place after the sale. These are:
an "investigation" has been launched to figure out how a national monument could have been sold
the sub-registrar has been suspended
Mr Narayan Rane held a press conference in which he brought out subtle points such as "the villagers did not have the title rights over the fort, only `nistar rights' (rights of passage) for the last several years for drying and storing fish." (source:
newkerela.com)
The Shiv Sena has said that Rane is trying to sell off a national treasure and demanded that Vilasrao Deshmukh order an enquiry into it
In all probability this will snowball into a major political crisis now. The issue will be raised in the Vidhan Sabha. The opposition will claim that the government has been negligent and that if it can't protect Shivaji's legacy it might as well dissolve the house and call for fresh elections. The government will vehemently deny this and charges will fly thick and fast. Protest rallies will be held, effigies will burnt and rasta roko's organized.
I don't know which part of the story is most bizarre- that a 300 year old historical monument was being maintained by some villagers who clearly have bigger problems on their hands, the apathy of the administration for the last 34 years or that lakhs of rupees will now be spent on investigations to determine how the fort was sold.
Source: The Telegraph, DNA, CNN-IBN
