Land of ashram has to serve its purpose

Visakhapatnam: A 100-year-old Sri Santhi Ashram was once a school for orphaned children and those with special needs. Part of the space was also utilised for senior citizens.

However, it has now fallen under the scanner of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) as several unauthorised constructions take place on the campus.

To save the ashram and retain its purpose, Jana Sena Party leaders embarked upon the rescue of the Sri Santhi Ashram with an aim to protect its valuable property extending up to 6.54 acres in prime Lawson’s Bay area.

Decades back, Sri Swami Omkar gifted 6.54 acres of land to Raghavendra Yogeswarulu for the purpose of setting up a yoga ashram.

Since the land gifted is not used for the purpose, the donor demanded to return the site to him. Eventually, Uppalapati Vivekananda, also known as Yogashram Babji, claimed himself as an adopted son of Raghavendra Yogeswarulu and approached the High Court claiming his right on the property.

After waging a long battle of 20 years, the High court issued an order in December 2023 to vacate the property and to hand it over to the Swami Omkar (donor) within two months to.

Meanwhile, Uppalapati Vivekananda passed away and his legal heirs, including his wife, two sons and daughter approached the Supreme Court which issued an order to vacate the ashram by September 30, 2024. But the family was not inclined to vacate the property even after the Supreme Court’s verdict.

In September, president of Santhi Ashram MN Aditya approached the District Collector, GVMC Commissioner and general secretary of Jana Sena Party Bolisetty Satyanarayana and corporator P Murthy Yadav to seek their support to free the ashram property from the control of Vivekananda’s family members.

Jana Sena Party corporator P. Murthy Yadav recently lodged a complaint to the GVMC officials that illegal constructions were taking place in the premises. He mentioned in the complaint that in the garb of yoga ashram, private persons have been converting the land and letting it out for commercial complexes like food court, restaurants, sheds, private vehicle parking, cricket coaching shed, gym, automobile sheds, petrol station, etc and earning crores of rupees from them. The corporator pointed out that the GVMC did not respond to the construction of these commercial complexes even as they were built without taking any required permissions.

As a result, the GVMC town planning officials demolished a petrol station building which was illegally constructed on the Santhi Ashram lands.

The JSP leaders mentioned that the authorities concerned should focus on protecting the asset of the ashram so that the

purpose is served.