NEW DELHI: After a long wait, the family of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conveyed its acceptance of a piece of land at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal offered for the construction of his memorial. The formal allotment of the land will be made once the family sets up a trust for the purpose.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) confirmed the development. “Singh’s family has responded with a letter of acceptance. The family may have visited the proposed site but there is no official information on this,” said an official.
The land, measuring about 10,000 square feet, earmarked for Singh’s commemorative site is close to the memorials of former presidents and PMs such as Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Chandra Shekhar, IK Gujral and PV Narasimha Rao. The proposed memorial of former president Pranab Mukherjee will also come up on the adjoining plot.
Despite multiple attempts, no response from the family was available.
Singh passed away in December. Following his demise, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested to hold Singh’s funeral at a place where his memorial could be built. Subsequently, the government had offered two adjoining plots at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, a common memorial complex near Rajghat.
While the ministry waited for the family’s approval, the engineer and architect of the Central Public Work Department (CPWD) carried out groundwork to facilitate the construction. The mapping of the site was done and the design and other modalities were also discussed in the ministry.
Sources said the government would give Rs 25 lakh to the trust, which is to be formed by kin of the Congress leader for the memorial. “Land allotment formalities will begin once the family forms a trust and informs the ministry,” said officials.
According to the officials, the CPWD will carry out the construction but the expenses will be borne by the trust. The proposed cenotaph of Singh will be identical to the memorials that already exist at the site.
Each memorial is a square piece of land surrounded by about two feet high sandstone latticed screens with a 5X5 black granite platform in the centre. This is a standard design of memorials at the Rashtriya Smriti complex except Atal Bihari Vajapyee’s Samadhi.
Vaypayee’s memorial comprises nine square black polished granite solid stone blocks, capped with a ‘diya’ in the centre. The placement of the nine blocks is in a circular lotus shaped pattern and they are enclosed by nine bas-relief walls, which have inscriptions of the prose or poetry of Vajpayee.