Residents of Anand village oppose allocation of 91 acres of land to Swaminarayan sect, claim not a single one of them is a disciple

This comes a day after the villagers locked the local panchayat office in protest and alleged that they had “not been taken into confidence” before the district administration alloted the land to the Rajkot-based Swaminarayan sect.

The villagers have contended that the land in question was “important” for the village, which is located on the banks of Mahisagar river and has witnessed excessive flooding in 2024 monsoon due to the ongoing work of raising the height of of the railway tracks.

Gulabsinh Padhiyar, a representative of the villagers, said, “Our village is the fifth most-populated in Anklav taluka, with a population of 8,000 and the smallest in revenue records. Out of the 900 acres of land in the village, about 650 acres of land belongs to private farmers and 300 acres is with the government. Most of this is Gauchar land and this particular parcel of land has been handed over to the Swaminarayan sect without taking us into confidence…”

The villagers said that the land, measuring 237 bighas in local calculation, could be used to construct homes for the villagers as 500-700 houses were inundated during the monsoon. Gulabsinh said, “Applications for the construction of 350 homes are pending … Moreover, there is not a single Swaminarayan disciple in this village or the surrounding seven villages… Why is this sect from Rajkot interested in a land in Anklav?”

Another representative of the village, Muni Padhiyar, said that none of the villagers belonged to

“factions” and therefore, were wary of the Swaminarayan sect setting up an institution in the village. Muni said, “Without consulting the Gram Sabha of Kahanwadi village, the administration has allotted the land for a cost of Rs 38 crore… We have locked the panchayat office and organised a Gram Sabha meet on March 10 as we are ready to fight these forces… We are one village and we are deeply united; we do not have any faction here whether spiritual or political, and therefore, we do not want the peace and sanity of our area to be disturbed by such commercial institutions, which are trying to make an entry here to also factionalise the village.”

Muni added, “We have a school, which teaches students right from bal mandir to Class XII, in our village. In a distance of 8-12 km, we have universities and colleges. So why does the Swaminarayan sect need to have its gurukul here? Instead of giving this land to Swaminarayan, this land should be used to compensate villagers or build house or in Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC). There are several hectares of land available in Rajkot, where the Swaminarayan sect can build whatever it wants…”

The residents of the village on Thursday also requested the District Collector to attend the Gram Sabha meeting scheduled for March 10.

Meanwhile, District Collector Chaudhary said, “We had received an application from the Rajkot Swaminarayan Gurukul, which requested for the 37 hectares of land in Kahanwadi village. As per procedure, the proposal was sent to the state government for approval. The land was allotted  after receiving government approval. The villagers have now raised objections and we will put the same before the state government.”

Congress MLA from Anklav, Amit Chavda, said, “The village is in my Assembly constituency and prone to flooding… The government did not consult or take suggestions from the Gram Sabha or village leaders before handing over the land to a faction of the Swaminarayan sect for education purposes. The government, in its surreptitious ways, has cleared files to give away 237 bighas of land, which would be worth a market value of Rs 200 crore, for a meagre sum of Rs 37 crore … Why would educational institutions need 237 bighas of land? We have been asking for a GIDC for several years. They should use the land for local development. The decision to hand over this land to Swaminarayan should be revoked.”