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Memorial: House of Kalam wants sand and brick from every state
Mysuru, Dec 29: After months of neglect, the burial place (kabar) of former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam at Pei Karumbu in Rameswaram seems to have got some attention finally.
"The officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (
DRDO) have met us. They have promised to take up the work immediately. The ground leveling work will begin first followed by the fencing work," Saleem said."It is raining heavily in Rameswaram for the last two days. DRDO also has plans to strengthen the temporary shelter as a permanent memorial comes up," says Saleem.
However, the actual memorial work for the memorial will only begin after the Ministry of Defence (MoD), DRDO and House of Kalam finalise the design.
A section of media had reported that the memorial work would begin today. "The memorial work will begin only after a few months. Right now the officials are ensuring that the kabar is safe and the surroundings are clean," says Saleem.
DRDO likely to launch nation-wide design contest
He
said
the
DRDO
is
planning
to
launch
a
nation-wide
campaign
inviting
an
appropriate
design
for
the
memorial.
"He
was
the
People's
President
and
hence
the
DRDO
wants
to
involve
the
people
to
design
the
memorial.
Once
the
fencing
work
is
completed
(expected
to
take
over
a
month),
the
DRDO
will
announce
the
design
competition,"
Saleem
said.
He said five top designs from architects will be shortlisted and finally one will be selected.
"We have been told that there will be prizes for the winners. The family has requested to bring bricks and sand from all states of India for the memorial work. We also wanted a member from House of Kalam to be nominated to the Memorial Committee. They have accepted the suggestion so that we too have a say in the memorial design," says Saleem.
Thanking the people of India for their support ever since the #Justice4GuruKalam campaign on Twitter and the FB page was launched, Saleem said the family is overwhelmed.
"We want to thank the government and the people. Hope the work will now continue without any delays," says Saleem.
Silent online campaign gathers momentum
Meanwhile, House of Kalam transferred the ownership of the online petition by A P J M Marakaiyar launched on Change.org to the campaign managers of #Justice4GuruKalam for speedy updates. The petition was launched on December 24 and is addressed to Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu.
"We are happy with the government's decision to get on with the memorial work. We have told the #Justice4GuruKalam team to update the online petition with positive news from Rameswaram. We respect the sentiments of people and we will inform them all updates from here," Saleem added.
Over 18,000 people have already signed the petition in the last five days.
An updated post on #Justice4GuruKalam FB page said that the silent campaign would continue till the memorial work is completed.
(The writer is a seasoned aerospace and defence journalist in India. Currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow with University of Mysore, he is a Consulting Editor (Defence) with OneIndia. He tweets @writetake.)
