Anjana-Chaudharys latest to join the community centre trend in Gujarat

The Anjanadham Trust has also been formed for the project that the community plans to complete within three years.

The community, which is largely into dairy farming, has become the latest — after Patidars, Rabaris, Prajapatis and Dalits — to announce a multi-purpose community centre in the state capital. “For many years now, we have been thinking of coming up with something so that our people who largely stay in villages could be helped in skill development, education, etc, so that they can live respectfully. We were thinking of ways so that our people can walk with changing times and take benefits of various government schemes,” said Manilal Chaudhary, a trustee of Anjanadham Trust.

The announcement of the centre was made at a Gandhinagar event last week where a fund of Rs 151 crore was promised as donations by leading community members. Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, a leading name in the community, was also present at the function.

The project donors are mainly businessmen such as Manilal Chaudhary (Rs 51 crore), Shankar Chaudhary (Rs 35 crore) of Shanku’s Group, Haribhai V Chaudhary (Rs 25 crore), Kanubhai Chaudhary (Rs 11 crore), Babubhai Chaudhary (Rs 11 crore) and Ramesh Chaudhary (Rs 11 crore). Community members who promised large donations were also felicitated by the Speaker at the event.

The trend of communities building centres for its members has been around for a while in the state. The Patidars were among the first to set up such a centre called ‘Sardardham’ in Ahmedabad following the quota agitation of 2015. It now has six branches in Gujarat and one in Delhi.

Notably, eight of the 25 candidates who cleared the UPSC this year from Gujarat were trained at Sardardham.

“Apart from skill development of our community members in education, we also want to provide them guidance in developing careers in sports. Our youths are physically very fit and have potential to reach upto the Olympics level. So, we plan to provide them guidance at this centre,” Manilal, who is the top donor so far, added. A native of Dagavadiya village in Mehsana, Manilal says the community plans to conduct the ground-breaking ceremony in December.

Noted philanthropist and one of the trustees of the Anjanadham Trust, Haribhai said the aim is to develop a centre where the community members can stay afoot with the changing times. Haribhai, who is also among the leading donors, said that intially, the centre will come up on nine bighas but would later be expanded to 20 bighas. His son and former Mansa MLA, Amit Chaudhary, is the general secretary of Anjanadham Trust.

“It will be to keep the community with changing times and trends in society like computers, artificial intelligence, animal husbandry, dairying, sports, etc… Our kids are talented but are unable to make progress due to paucity of resources. Even people from Sardardham are helping us whenever required,” said Haribhai.

Vishva Patidar Samaj, a social group of the Patidars, built Sardardham on Sardar Patel Ring Road. The Rs 200-crore building boasts of residential facilities for students/aspirants, e-library, library, high-tech classrooms, gymnasium, auditoriums, multi-purpose halls and rest house with 50 luxury rooms along with other amenities for business and political conglomerations.

“Basically, we want to come up with something like Sardardham (of Patidar community) for our Chaudhary community,” said Manilal.

Similarly, a group of Rabaris — Raika Education Charitable Trust (RECT) — has been building a coaching centre-cum-residential complex near Vaishnodevi on Sardar Patel Ring Road. The facility will be able to accommodate 2,000 competitive exam aspirants. Work of the centre to be built on 6000 sq m land is in advance stage and a trustee of RECT stated that it is likely to be ready in next six months.

On the same lines, various Dalit groups are also coming up with similar centres in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Shikshan Vikas Seva Trust, a social group of SC community members, has set up an educational-cum-residential centre at Sarkhej area of Ahmedabad for the Dalit students, including the UPSC and GPSC aspirants.

Shree Uttar Gujarat Vankar Samaj Panch and the Pargana Mahasangh Trust have announced a community centre in Kudasan of Gandhinagar with training centres for youths. The ground-breaking ceremony of the centre was held in February this year.

Vankar Seva Sangh — another group of a Scheduled Caste community — has started building Vankar Samaj Bhavan in the Chandkheda area of Ahmedabad with similar objectives as Sardardham and Anjanadham.

Samast Prajapati Samaj, Gujarat — a social group of the Prajapatis — is also planning to build a community centre on 6.5 bigha land near Gandhinagar.