Military memorial lies buried under apathy

As the country celebrates Kargil Vijay Diwas on Thursday, the city’s fight for a memorial for martyrs hasn’t borne fruit even after a decade.

Residents of the city claim that successive governments have done little to complete works on the National Military Memorial.

Apathy by the government agency, that was entrusted with the job of erecting a monolith at the memorial, has forced the martyrs’ children and families to take to social media.

Priya Chetty Rajagopal, an activist who has been fighting for the cause, said the foundation stone for the memorial was laid by the state in 2008-09 to honour post-Independence martyrs.

“The military has done its bit. The Rs 25-crore project has to be completed by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA). The 75-footstone monolith, which is ready, only needs to be erected here. Already, Rs 94-95 lakh has been spent on this,” she said. But time and again, the officials have been citing shortage of funds, she said. Priya said the memorial has been planned on a 7.5 acre space. Several others like her have launched an online campaign ‘#InMyFathersName’.

“#UnveilNMM Its Vijay Kargil Diwas on 26 July when 19 years ago 527 soldiers were martyred to protect our borders, in minus 42-degree weather. We have requested to meet the Governor, Deputy CM & BDA Commissioner on why the National Military Memorial in these martyrs memory can be so disrespected, and lies in cobwebs (sic),” reads a post online.

Several of them took to social media to urge the government to give the warriors the respect they deserved. A petition was also started on Change.org in this regard.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrashekar — who was also the chairman of the National Military Memorial Committee — has written to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy regarding the condition of the memorial.

“Though many years and months have passed since firming up the conceptualisation and laying of the foundation stone, due to various reasons, the project continues to remain in an incomplete state. The Veeragallu, honouring our martyrs, as the traditional name itself denotes, commissioned six-plus years ago, is yet to be transported from the quarry and erected at the memorial site by the BDA,” reads the letter.