MP admin revises land use for Mahakhumb amid seers’ stir
The 148 hectares of land was typically used for parking and public services for Simhastha, organised every 12 years in Ujjain
The Ujjain district administration on Friday reverted the use of land measuring almost 150 hectares, including some belonging to state higher education minister Mohan Yadav to agriculture from residential following protest by ascetics who were worried the initial conversion to residential use would affect the holding of the Ujjain Mahakhumb, known as Simhastha, in 2028.
The 148 hectares of land was typically used for parking and public services for Simhastha, organised every 12 years in Ujjain. On May 26, the Ujjain administration announced a city development plan which provided for development of new township on the land. “Under the new master plan, residential land was specified on 148.679 hectares of land identified for satellite town in village Savarkhedi,” said a Ujjain administration official familiar with the matter.
Congress leader from Ujjain Ravi Rai on May 28 alleged that the land use was changed to residential from agricultural to benefit higher education minister Mohan Yadav and his family members, who own about 50 hectares of the land.
“The area is near to the city and BJP government minister Mohan Yadav wanted to develop a township there but due to Simhastha, he couldn’t do so. He along with two other BJP leaders, who have their land in the area, hatched a conspiracy and asked the officers to design the development plan according to them,” Rai alleged.
Yadav accepted that his family’s agriculture land in Savarkhedi would have been converted but denied the allegation . “I didn’t do anything for changing the use of land. The allegations are baseless.”
Following protests by local temple management committees, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan rejected the Ujjain development plan , state government officials said.
Explaining the rationale for action, an official of town and country planning department in Bhopal said, “It came to light that there may be difficulty in availability of land for parking and other service facilities for Simhastha if this land converted into residential. The conversion would have also hindered free movement of traffic from Simhastha bypass to the fair area.”
In an official note to the Ujjain municipal corporation (UMC), the government explained this.
“The 148.679 hectares of land reserved for Satellite Town, which was notified for Simhastha-2016 in village Savarkhedi, in Ujjain Development Plan-2035 released in May, will be used according to land use specified in Ujjain Development Plan-2021. That means the use of the land will remain agricultural and it will be used in Simhastha-2028. In this, a reserve will be kept for temporary parking or Simhastha. For this, action is being taken for land use modification,” the official communication said.
Ujjain municipal commissioner, Roshan Kumar Singh, said, “The Chief Minister has given necessary orders regarding this to the Commissioner-cum-Director town and country planning. We received the official communique on Friday. We will invite objections and suggestions in the regard and will issue final order after 15 days to reconvert the land into agricultural.”
The Congress said the change was made because the minister’s involvement came to light. “Why did the CM intervene and change the land use again. It means the minister definitely played important role in change in land use earlier,” said KK Mishra, spokesperson, Congress.
