The controversy over the move to construct a memorial for Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar inside the Indu Mills land in central Mumbai has been finally put to rest.
The Centre, approving the plan, will make an announcement on Wednesday, a day before the 56th death anniversary of the Father of Indian Constitution.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan assured the angry Dalit community and political leaders who had threatened to take over the Indu Mills land that an announcement would be made in the Lok Sabha by Union Textile Minister Anand Sharma with Congress MP Rajiv Shukla making a similar announcement in Rajya Sabha. Even as several Dalit leaders welcomed the green-signal, RPI(A) leader Ramdas Athavale who had threatened to storm the Indu Mills compound, said that till the government formally makes the announcement, “the threat stands.”
Meanwhile, on the controversy of removing the make-shift structure built on the cremation site in Shivaji Park, Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu refused to comment on the written threat issued by the civic authorities with regard to a possible disqualification as a corporator for supporting unauthorised structure.
Maharashtra Chief Secretary Jayant Kumar Banthia, told Deccan Herald on Monday that the state government and civic authorities had made it clear to the party leaders that the ground where Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray was cremated was given “with conditions specified very clearly and their stand on supporting unauthorised structures makes them vulnerable to disqualification from their public posts.”
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has already distanced himself with the controversy raked up by party spokesperson Sanjay Raut and Mumbai Mayor Prabhu, stating that the cremation site is “sacrosanct and party workers want to maintain its sanctity.”