Karnataka - Gulbarga   

ASI wants encroachments inside Gulbarga Fort cleared

Special Correspondent

`Cut power and water connections given to houses inside the fort'

NOBODY TO GUARD: The area once used as barracks by the Bahamani soldiers inside the Gulbarga Fort has been encroached upon.

GULBARGA: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has urged the State Government to take steps to clear all encroachments within the Gulbarga Fort, which has been declared as a national monument.

In its notice to the district administration, the ASI has said that electricity and water supply connections provided to houses that have come up illegally inside the fort should be cut immediately and people who have encroached upon the fort area should be evicted to protect the priceless monuments, including Jamia Masjid, the only replica in the country of the famed Cardova Mosque in Spain.

Nothing much has been done to protect this 14th century fort. Apart from 150 houses, several shops and workshops have also come up illegally inside the fort. Surprisingly, the civic authorities and the then Karnataka Electricity Board have given drinking water and electricity connections to the houses inside the fort.

The first attempt to clear all encroachments inside the fort was made in the early 1970s by Deputy Commissioner Balasubramanyam. But after his transfer from Gulbarga, the people who had been evicted took possession of the houses they had built inside the fort. Since then, no official has made any attempt to clear encroachments inside the fort.

Even the barracks used by soldiers of the Bahamani Dynasty inside the fort have been encroached upon. The Gulbarga City Corporation has not only given drinking water and sanitary connections to the houses inside the fort but has also built roads.

Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey said the district administration had held discussions with the representatives of those living in illegally built houses inside the fort considering the difficulty in clearing all encroachments at one go. The district administration was thinking of relocating them.

Mr. Pandey said the Gulbarga Development Authority would be asked to develop an alternative area to relocate the people living inside the fort.

Since the authority was an independent agency that worked on a no-loss and no-profit basis, developing a layout for relocating the people living inside the fort would result in loss of revenue to it. The issue would have to be approved in the board meeting of the authority.

Mr. Pandey said that a proposal in this regard would be placed in the meeting of the board to be held soon. Land would have to be acquired to relocate the people living inside the fort, he added.

The fort was built by Raja Gulchand, and it was occupied by the Bahamani Kingdom established in 1347 by Abu-i-Muzaffar Alauddin Bahman Shah.

The fort was the seat of power of Bahamani Kings till 1424 when the capital of the kingdom was shifted to Bidar.

Alauddin Bahman Shah, first Bahamani King, installed 26 guns, one of which is 25 ft. and constructed 15 watchtowers around the fort. The fort has a moat which is in a state of neglect now. Mr. Pandey said encroachments within the fort would be cleared first and those outside it would be dealt with later.

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