New Delhi : As the late Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary celebrations are about to take off, the state government has concluded a tripartite agreement with the central government and the public sector National Textile Corporation for the transfer of 12 acres of the Indu Mills land to set up a memorial for him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at whose initiative the agreement was concluded, was present at the signing ceremony along with state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and the union minister for textiles Santosh Gangwar. Now Modi would be visiting Mumbai to lay the foundation stone of the memorial after his three nation tour from April 9th to 16th. His pre-fixed international engagements would mean that this ceremony would not be held on April 14, which marks Dr Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, even though decks have been cleared for the memorial.
But this marks the fulfillment of a long pending demand, as the state government shall now get the possession of the land on which Dr. Ambedkar’s last rites were performed in 1956. Successive chief ministers have been pursuing this demand; however, Fadnavis succeeded in convincing the central government that there is no need for a legislation to be passed by Parliament for handing over the land to the state government.
With the help of legal advice, he convinced the central government that within the ambit of the existing legal framework, with the pre-permission of the central government, the public sector NTC could transfer the land to the state government. This route also makes a departure in the sense that now the ownership of the transferred land would be vested in the state government, as compared to the previous proposal under which this would have remained with the central government.
Now a committee under a joint secretary in the textiles ministry has been set up to finalise the other details like the cost of the land, and other terms and conditions for its transfer to the state government. The agreement was signed by P C Vaish, chairman-managing director, on behalf of NTC and Abha Shukla, resident commissioner, government of Maharashtra.
