Nexus of Good: Conciliatory renovation

Shri Kashi Viswanath' — one of the 12 'jyotirlings'— has been expanded, beautified and glorified. This renovation of Kashi Viswanath temple premises, which has taken place after more than 200 years, has brought about a historical transformation of the surrounding area.

The completion of Kashi Viswanath Dham, which now connects the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Shiva to the holy river Ganga, is truly monumental. The project was complex, maybe not in size but in nature, as it entailed acquisition and rehabilitation of hundreds of households in a dense area of one of the most ancient cities of the world. A special area development board was created for this purpose and a master plan was made by consultants. Initially, the project included 197 houses but was revised to incorporate 314 houses. The first choice before the board was to go in for compulsory acquisition under the new Act or to buy the properties through mutual negotiations. The mandate was clear that this project had to be done without any conflict, coercion or confrontation. It had to be done with cooperation, coordination and conciliation. The first step was identification of the rightful owners of the properties. This was done through the Revenue Department, Nagar Nigam and a diligent legal team. In parallel, there was a team which started visiting the owners and persuaded them to come to the negotiating table. Initially, low-hanging fruits were considered. Negotiations led to headway in obtaining the legal rights. The properties fell broadly into three categories — private, trusts and 'Sevait'. The 'Sevait' properties are those properties where there is a custodian ('Sevait') instead of an owner. They had to be treated differently. In private properties, there were numerous cases where there were multiple owners. In one case, there were more than 20 owners, settled in different parts of the country, and even abroad. To convince them to first give up their share which, at times, was contested, and then to sell those at a negotiated amount, was a challenge. However, continuous dialogue, which went for months, worked. The second challenge was acquisition of trust properties that entailed getting the entire board to agree and ensuring necessary legal compliance before the sale deeds could be transacted. Some of the trusts were not head-quartered in Varanasi. Hence, teams had to be sent to those places to negotiate and convince them.

Despite the fact that by the end of 2018, legal rights of a good number of properties were obtained, getting them physically vacated was a challenge as there were a large number of stakeholders — tenants with documents, tenants without any documents and a number of them falling in none of these categories. There was a choice to go in for a physical rehabilitation plan and resettle them elsewhere, or to go in for a one-time settlement by giving them some cash compensation upfront.

The foundation stone was laid on March 8, 2019. The first challenge was to acquire the legal rights of the properties

A total of 314 properties were purchased through mutual negotiation. Initial headway was tough to come by but a series of negotiation proceedings, initiated parallelly, started bearing fruits and sale deeds could be closed. Most of the owners came after their business hours. So, the negotiations went till late in the night. A make-shift registry office was set up at the site itself. A draft template of the sale deed was kept ready and it was ensured that if there was a deal, it should be closed immediately even if discussions went till early hours in the morning. The team was truly dedicated. Each new purchase brought renewed vigour and confidence to the team.

The toughest part was getting the physical possession of properties. The occupants of these properties were different from the owners in most of the cases. As the occupants did not get any share in the value of the properties, they had to be dealt with separately. Number of options were discussed. These included building a colony for them somewhere else and promising them shops under the project. It was believed that any future promise would not cut much ice as they would be apprehensive about the time, location, area and the uncertainties of administrative set-up during the course of the project. Finally, a one-time settlement was considered with all the physical occupants — apart from the owners — irrespective of the fact whether they were tenants with or without documents, and even encroachers and street vendors who were occupying the space. A band of one-time financial rehabilitation packages, depending on the location, area, nature (household or commercial) and also the socio-economic situations of the families, was evolved. For example, 37 families who were dependent on Manikarnika Ghat for their livelihood were rehabilitated. Though the area they were occupying was small, such financial assistance was given to them as would enable them to resettle in the vicinity. The next task at hand was to demolish those buildings. Considering the site constraints, this exercise had to be undertaken manually as no machinery could go in. Transportation of debris was done on mules. Working hours available for work were limited to just four, when the temple was closed.

During the demolition, a number of old temples were discovered. These were encapsulated inside many dwellings. The master plan was modified to ensure that all these temples were made part of this project. These temples were restored and are now an integral part of Kashi Viswanath Dham. Construction itself was a challenge, considering the site constraints and working hours available. Finally, COVID was a huge issue in carrying out the tasks. Despite these hurdles, the project was completed in record time.

This project presents a wonderful example of Nexus of Good. It also demonstrates that given requisite political vision, direction and support as was provided by the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, such projects can be executed despite enormous constraints. The manner in which the entire team, under the inspired guidance of Divisional Commissioner, Deepak Agrawal, performed is truly remarkable.

Views expressed are personal