Buildings of Gandhian organisation Sarva Sewa Sangh demolished in Varanasi

The administration has demolished more than a dozen buildings on the premises of the Sarva Sewa Sangh, a Gandhian organisation, in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi on the orders of a court that ruled the land belonged to the railways.

The buildings were on 13 acres of land at the Rajghat area and these were razed on Saturday.

There was a dispute over the land between the organisation and the railways. On June 26, a Varanasi district court had ruled in favour of the Northern Railway and said the land belonged to it.

Hence, an order for demolition was passed by railway authorities on June 27, sources said.

The Sarva Sewa Sangh had challenged the district court's order in the Allahabad High Court and then moved the Supreme Court in July but got no relief, they said.

Following this, the buildings were demolished using bulldozers in presence of officials from the railways, the district administration and police.

The organisation was established in 1948 by Acharya Vinoba Bhave to propagate the ideas and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi.

The organisation had submitted in the Supreme Court that the land for its premises in Varanasi was purchased by it from the central government through "three registered sale deeds in 1960, 1961 and 1970".

The Sarva Sewa Sangh's coordinator Ram Dheeraj claimed that more than a dozen on the 13 acres of land of the organisation were bulldozed.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said, "What the BJP government is considering as its victory by running bulldozers on the building of 'Sarva Sewa Sangh' in Varanasi, a symbol of the ideological heritage of Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Jaya Prakash ji, is actually its defeat because how will anyone shake their foundation whose thoughts are spread across the country."