Netaji memorial to come up at IGNCA complex

New Delhi, May 1: Culture Ministry is likely to allot up to six acres of land in the campus of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in the heart of national capital for construction of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose memorial.

The move will meet the long standing demand of the Netaji's INA Trust for allotment of land in "prominent area" of Delhi for construction of memorial of the freedom fighter. "A decision in this regard has been taken by the Culture Ministry.

The Ministry will allot land at the campus of IGNCA for the purpose," a Ministry source said. IGNCA, considered a Congress legacy, was established in 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. It spreads across a 26-acre campus at Janpath near India Gate.

"Out of this 26 acres, about 4-6 acres of land which is lying unused currently will be allotted for setting up the memorial of Netaji," the source said.

Last year, Union Urban Development Ministry had written a letter to Culture Ministry to consider allotting land for setting up the freedom fighter's memorial, he added.

Earlier, Netaji's INA Trust had requested the Urban Development Ministry to provide land for constructing the leader's memorial.

The Trust had also rejected the 1.6 acres of land allocated for the purpose by Urban Development Ministry at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and sought about six acres of land near Rajpath for the memorial, the source said.

The decision of Culture Ministry comes days after Union Minister Mahesh Sharma announced that a memorial dedicated to Netaji will be built in the national capital.

He had said keeping in view the demand of various organisations and Parliamentarian, the government has decided to built a huge memorial in his name in Delhi which will depict his life and freedom struggle.

Last month, the Modi-government had also reconstituted the management of IGNCA bringing in veteran Hindi journalist Ram Bahadur Rai as its head in place of Chinmaya Gharekhan, a former diplomat.

PTI