A case has been filed in the Bhopal district court against Sadhna Singh, wife of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for illegally constructing a warehouse near a protected monument.
Darbar Singh Rajput, a resident of Vidisha, filed a petition in the court of Judge Manoj Shrivastava alleging that Sadhna Singh has constructed warehouses on the land owned by her in village Bais without taking legal permissions. The warehouses constructed by her are just 84 metres away from the Helio Doras Stambh Khan Baba monument that is declared as protected monument by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), he added.
The petitioner informed the court that the monument comes under the ‘D’ category of the protected monuments and as per the provisions of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and. Validation) Act 2010, 100 meters areas from all sides of the protected building remains prohibited area and beyond that further 200 metres in all directions construction, renovation, repairing and mining is completed prohibited.
The petitioner said the CM was fully aware of the illegal construction carried out by his wife. The Superintendent ASI in response to an RTI enquiry informed that no permission has been granted for any sort of construction near this protected monument. The ASI also mentioned in response to the RTI that no construction has been done by any individual or organisation in the prohibited area of the monument whereas the construction done by Sadhna Singh is within 100 metres of the prohibited area and is clearly visible.
The ASI could not dare to provide actual information as the construction is done by none other than wife of the Chief Minister of State. Further, officials of other departments also could not dare to take any action to remove the illegal construction as they are afraid of losing their jobs. The petitioner said in these circumstances he was left with none other option than to approach the court hence, the petition be accepted and whoever is found culprit in the case than appropriative punishment should be given.