Army Chief hopes National War Memorial will be a reality

New Delhi, Jul 26 (UNI) Even as the nation today observed the 9th anniversary of victory at the icy Kargil heights against Pakistani forces, Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor hoped that the National War Memorial will become a reality soon.

''Request has been made...it is a place where soldiers and the common man can pay tribute to the martyrs who fought for the country,'' he said.

The army chief was reacting to a poser on the delay in construction of the War Memorial proposed near India Gate, where he along with Chief of Navy Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta and vice chief of Air Staff Air Marshal P N Naik laid wreaths at Amar Jawan Jyoti to mark the nineth anniversary of the Kargil War.

Recently, the army chief had opined that ''If the war memorial is at India Gate, it will become a rallying point for the civil society by attracting young people and an expression of their national spirit.'' Defence Minister AK Antony, in a recent letter to the Prime Minister lamented the stumbling blocks created over the years by the Urban Development Ministry to the memorial designed by Charles Correa. If approved, it would be India's first national war memorial, commemorating soldiers died in all the wars since World War II.

A couple of months back, the three service chiefs had called on the PM and raised the almost five-decade delay in building the memorial.

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