Centre and State to work together for constructing Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mills
MUMBAI : A day after clearing the proposal of the Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea, the Centre on Friday, gave a green signal to the much awaited Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mills in Mumbai.
Union minister of state for textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar, in a press note, declared that the Centre along with the state government shall together build the grand memorial of Dr. B R Ambedkar at the now-defunct Indu Mills land in Dadar.
However, while retracting from Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) policy which had a cleared proposal to hand over the mill land to the Maharashtra government, the minister said that the proposed land would not be handed over to the state. He clarified that the centre is positive about the memorial and it (Centre) and state government shall discuss and work together on the issue.
While expressing happiness over the declaration, Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “The announcement will accelerate the establishment of a grand memorial which will educate and inspire future generations.”
Last year, the then Union Cabinet had planned a legislation aimed at empowering the central government to acquire a portion of the land (Indu Mill land) belonging to the National Textile Corporation Limited (NTCL) for facilitation of the construction of the memorial.
The declaration from the central government that has come just ahead of Dr. Ambedkar’s 58th mahaparinirvaan day attempts to appease the junior ally, Republican Party of India (Athawale) in Maharashtra which is already upset over its non-inclusion in Fadnavis’s ‘expanded’ cabinet.
Also, the RPI (A) in a bid to pressurize the BJP-led government, last week, led a well-attended morcha outside the mill land demanding speeding up the handover process. State Education minister Vinod Tawde who attended the congregation declared that the bhoomi poojan will take place by April 2015.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai BJP is pushing for withdrawal of all cases against Dalit youths booked for the Indu Mill agitations in previous years. Mumbai BJP spokesman, Niranjan Shetty told FPJ, “We shall meet the CM and urge him to expedite the process of withdrawal of such cases.”
