Illegal buildings on Gandhi Maidan in Gaya. Picture by Suman

Gaya, June 18: The historical Gandhi Maidan in this pilgrim town has fallen prey to unauthorised construction of government office buildings.

The Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) has not approved the construction plan of any of the buildings that have come up on the southern and eastern fringes of the Maidan.

The fact that the buildings have been constructed without the approval of the construction plan came to light when a Gaya-based social activist, Brijnandan Pathak, sought information under Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 on January 12, 2011.

In inputs provided to Pathak on April 12, 2012, the public information officer-cum-officer of land settlement office, Gaya, Mahashankar Prasad, had made available details of the constructed government office buildings.

The information has been provided on the basis of measurement of the government office buildings done by a GMC junior engineer, Subodh Kumar Singh.

According to the measurement report of the GMC junior engineer, around 5,25,484sqft of Gandhi Maidan have been used for the construction of the buildings. The details of the complete measurement of the Maidan, however, were not available. Singh in his inspection report to GMC city commissioner Dhaneshwar Chaudhary said: “According to the GMC office, the construction plan of none of the buildings has been approved.” The assistant public information officer of land settlement office in Gaya Ajay Kumar Sinha has said the information provided under RTI is based on the documents available according to the new survey conducted in 1985-86.

“There is no record of the map of Gandhi Maidan as per the survey of 1914 with the settlement office here,” the officer stated in his reply letter to Pathak.

The government offices that have been constructed on Gandhi Maidan include offices of the executive engineer of the building construction department and the road construction department Gaya circle-II, road construction department superintending engineer, the quarters of building construction department, child development project officer’s (CDPO) office, Gaya museum-cum-cultural centre, Gandhi Maidan indoor stadium, the office of forest department, Red Cross building, the rest house of lodging house committee, military engineering service quarter, office of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and St David’s Church.

District administration spokesman Dheeraj Narayan Sudhanshu said he discussed the issue with the district magistrate Bandana Preyashi. He said that the district magistrate has issued an order that no further construction will be allowed in the Gandhi Maidan area.

Pathak said because of the encroachment, the aim to provide an open space for the residents of the township has been completely defeated.