The Hindu : Karnataka News : BJP launches `Save Magadi fort' campaign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 07, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

BJP launches `Save Magadi fort' campaign

By Nagesh Prabhu

The moat around the Magadi fort

MAGADI (BANGALORE RURAL DISTRICT), JAN. 6. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today launched a "Save Magadi fort" campaign to preserve the fort built by Magadi Kempe Gowda (also called Kempe Gowda II) in the 17th century. It urged the State Government to declare the fort, which is spread over nine acres, as a historical monument.

The leaders of the BJP and the Sri Kempe Gowda Abhivridhi Samithi today took out a procession in Magadi town and opposed the alleged moves of the Magadi Taluk Panchayat to destroy the fort by filling up the moat surrounding it. They alleged that the Janata Dal (Secular) MLA of Magadi, H.C. Balakrishna, directed the taluk panchayat to fill the moat.

(Mr. Balakrishna was a BJP MLA during 1994-99.)

Crumbling fort

The fort has nearly crumbled owing to the removal of huge boulders by vandals and some local people, who have used them for raising foundations of houses. Cattle are also allowed to graze inside the fort and what remains of the fort is misused in many ways.

Addressing a large number of protestors in front of the fort, located in the heart of Magadi town (about 50 km from Bangalore), the BJP legislator from Uttarahalli, R. Ashok, said the fort built by Kempe Gowda II is a public property, and the local MLA "has no authority to direct" the panchayat to fill the moat, which is already filled with garbage. The neglect of the fort by the Government has led to the construction of a stadium inside the fort, he charged. The taluk panchayat has allegedly violated the rules laid down by the State Department of Archaeology and has not obtained its permission to level the moat, which will change the structure of the fort. The department officials, Mr. Ashok said, have not issued any direction to the panchayat to tamper with the historical monument.

He said the Government should take immediate steps to save the fort and release adequate funds for its renovation and maintenance. It should be declared as an archaeological monument on the lines of Hampi and the Archaeology Department asked to take up maintenance work. The people of Magadi will intensify the agitation if the Government continues to neglect it, he warned.

`Stated objective'

The President of the Magadi taluk unit of the BJP, H.M. Krishna Murthy, who is also the head of the samithi, charged that the Janata Dal (S) MLA suggested that the moat should be filled up to rid the town of the mosquito menace.

Speaking to The Hindu , the townsmen too opposed the filling up of the moat and "construction of a shopping complex" outside the fort and a park inside the fort. "The Nadaprabhu (Kempe Gowda II) constructed the fort and it is our duty to save it from destruction to tell the future generation that Magadi was the administrative capital for Kempe Gowda II," they said.

The Sri Kempe Gowda Abhivridhi Samithi, which installed a huge statue of Kempe Gowda II, near the fort in 2003, has launched the movement to protect the fort.

Mr. Ashok and Mr. Krishna Murthy garlanded the statue and submitted a memorandum to the tahsildar, T.P. Ramaiah, urging him to take steps to protect the fort.

Police personnel have been deployed in the town to maintain peace.

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