Centre's help needed to conserve Holkars' properties: Mahajan

Her statement comes six days after the MP High Court declared the state government the titleholder of these 246 charitable properties. Talking to reporters, Mahajan said Khasgi (Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Charities) Trust's properties are spread across the country and a few government officers cannot conserve them.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Sunday said the Madhya Pradesh government will have to seek the Centre's help for the conservation of 246 charitable properties of Holkars, the erstwhile rulers of Indore, as a handful of bureaucrats cannot look after them. Her statement comes six days after the MP High Court declared the state government the titleholder of these 246 charitable properties.

Talking to reporters, Mahajan said Khasgi (Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Charities) Trust's properties are spread across the country and a few government officers cannot conserve them. "Their conservation is not an easy task. I think the state government will have to seek the Centre's help in this," she said.

The BJP veteran said she has written a letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to seek a permanent information system for the upkeep and conservation of these properties. "Besides, I have sought that the MP Assembly should enact a law in this regard," she added.

The Khasgi Trust was established for maintenance of the charitable properties of Holkars after India's Independence, which also led to the end of princely states. Out of the 246 properties managed by the Khasgi Trust, 138 are temples, 18 dharamshalas, 34 ghats, 12 canopies, 24 gardens and water bodies, among others.

These properties are spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and some other states of the country..