Land Mafia Targets Over 100-year-old Heritage Hospital Building In Mandawa | Jaipur News

The now defunct Bhagwan Das Laat Hospital in Mandawa is facing the same fate as other heritage buildings that were razed by the local land mafia.

Jaipur: The now defunct Bhagwan Das Laat Hospital in Mandawa is facing the same fate as other heritage buildings that were razed by the local land mafia. The over 100-year-old building is stealthily getting stripped, defaced and destroyed by the land sharks in an attempt to declare it unsafe and use it for real estate benefits.
The hospital is government property, but managed by a trust. It was sold in 2018 by a trust member who had the power of attorney to three people. While the nagar palika rejected their application for mutation or ‘patta’ for it, unscrupulous people with vested interests have used the tried and tested modus operandi of destroying the vital parts of the building to make it unsafe to achieve their ends.
“We the people of the town have made a representation to the sessions court here to save the building from the clutches of the trust. The court has accepted our suit and we will fight tooth and nail to free it from the illegal possession of people,” said Rajkumar Saini, counsel in the case.
As for its history, the former rulers of Mandawa had donated 960 square yards of land to one Bhagwandas Rameswhar Mahajan Laat in 1914 to build a hospital for the welfare of people. When the princely states merged with the state of Rajasthan after Independence, it became government property but continued to be managed by the original trust.
In 1973, the trust gave up the property but formed another trust to get it back. While the hospital was run by the government, the building was overseen by the trust.
In 2017, the trust approached the court and said that since the building was unsafe and as another bigger hospital had come up, the hospital should cease to be operational in the building.
The trust then promised the government to give back the building for medical purposes whenever it required it. However, the trust said that they would renovate the building and use it for social and religious purposes.
After getting possession of the building in May 2018, the trust sold it to three people – Vishandhar Punia, Murali Lal Bevra and Abhishek Dhabai – in November and applied for mutation in December, which was rejected by the nagar palika.
“In every documentation, it is mentioned that the building cannot be used for anything else other than social purposes. Additionally, it is government land and how can it be sold,” questioned Saini.
While there is no law or roadmap by the state government to restore such heritage buildings, the local land mafia has taken advantage of it and are destroying the heritage which is in essence what Mandawa stands for as a tourist destination.