Maharashtra may seek World Heritage tag for Wardha Ashram

By Quaid Najmi Mumbai, Oct 2 : In a major initiative, the Maharashtra government is likely to seek a UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the renowned Gandhi Sevagram Ashram in Wardha, where Mahatma Gandhi lived for nearly 12 years.
Official sources told IANS that a proposal would be submitted soon to the Central government to set the ball rolling for including it in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Welcoming the plans, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar A. Gandhi, said that if it fructifies, this will be first-ever such proposal for any Gandhi-related monument to be accorded a UNESCO tag anywhere in the world, 72 years after the Mahatma’s martyrdom.
“We shall be happy to help the state government in any manner to achieve this. We request Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to take the first steps by declaring it as a ‘heritage monument’. A committee to this effect was also set up by the Centre a few years ago, but nothing happened after that,” Tushar Gandhi told IANS.
Uddhav Thackeray also gave the indication when he dedicated the development plans for the Ashram on the occasion of Gandhiji’s 151st birth anniversary here on Friday.
“India’s struggle for Independence was launched from the Sevagram Ashram. There was no modern technology or propaganda machinery then and there were restrictions of all kinds. However, Gandhiji made it a mass ‘people’s movement’ in those days,” Thackeray said.