New Delhi: RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat in the presence of veteran BJP leader Shri LK Advani, RSS Sahsarkaryavah Shri Suresh Soni, Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, BJP president Shri Amit Shah and scores of distinguished personalities of Delhi laid down the foundation stone for new building of Keshav Kunj, the RSS headquarters in New Delhi on November 13. The building is being built by Shri Keshav Smarak Samiti.
According to a statement issued by RSS Delhi Prant Sah Sanghachalak Shri Alok Kumar it will be a seven storey building and is likely to be completed in three years. “The new building will house the Kshetriya Karyalaya (zonal headquarters) and Delhi Prant Karyalaya of RSS. “In addition to the growing space constraint, the previous building had become quite old and dilapidated so a decision was taken to construct a new building which would meet the requirements of the organisation. The RSS has more than one lakh swayamsevaks in Delhi. The entire cost of construction would be contributed by the swayamsevaks over the next three years. A total of 3.5 lakh sq feet area will be constructed. In addition to a spacious parking lot, the proposed structure will comprise of three building blocks to meet the needs for various establishments, activities and functions such as administration, publication, library, archives, computer facilities, meeting halls, reception area, waiting lounge, sales counter for books seminar halls, conference rooms, offices, kitchen, pantry, dining hall, medical facilities, guest rooms and residential quarters for staff,” the statement said.
Laying the Foundation Stone Shri Mohan Bhagwat said utkat atmiyata is the basis of Sangh work. He said when the Sangh work began nobody had thought of having the resources. The sufferings and poor condition of our society and the nation were the
inspiration for us. As a person runs for help from his/her near and dear ones, when in trouble, we too ran without thinking about resources. That atmiyata is still making us run to uplift our people and the nation. Now as the Sangh work has expanded the need for resources have also increased. Whatever is needed for meeting the basic requirements has to be arranged.
He said there is no need for any Sangh Karyalaya for doing the Sangh work. When the Sangh work began in 1925, there was no Sangh Karyalaya even in Nagpur. Dr Hedgewar visited a large number of places to meet the
people. That is how the Sangh work expanded. Later a person Shri Dashottar vacated a room in his house and that became the centre of Sangh activities. The Sangh Karyalaya in Nagpur was built in 1940.
The plot on which the building is being constructed was given to Shri Guruji in 1947. At that time, Shri MS Golwalkar, popularly known as Shri Guruji, was the RSS Sarsanghachalak. A substantial portion of the land was in a low lying area and water pools were formed in it during rainy season. The property was used as RSS Karyalaya for the states of Delhi, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir (Himachal Pradesh and Haryana were then parts of Punjab) in some make-shift structures. In 1972, Shri Guruji transferred the rights of the property to Shri Keshav Smarak Samiti, a public charitable society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Shri Keshav Smarak Samiti constructed some structures in it comprising of a hall, a two floor building on one side and a single storied building on the other. The building on Deshbandhu Gupta Road side was constructed as an office
complex. Later, another floor was added to the double storied building. The Samiti has been running various charitable activities including a library cum reading room, a free dispensary with OPD facilities, vocational training centres and other such activities from here. RSS zonal and Delhi Prant offices have also been functioning from this building which would be now replaced by a new building. n
