City to get military memorial

City to get military memorial
DH News Service, Bangalore:
The foundation stone for the countrys first National Military Memorial (NMM) was laid at Indira Gandhi National Musical Fountain Park here on Tuesday.


Speaking at the function, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, said, “It is an honour to be the first State in the country to house a memorial for achievers and martyrs of the Armed Forces. It is the responsibility of every individual to pay tribute to armed force personnel”.

Rajeev Chandrashekar, MP and Chairman, NMM Committee, said, “As many as 351 soldiers from Karnataka have laid down their lives and 132 have been seriously injured in the service of the nation. NMM will serve as a beacon of inspiration to young, in whom we are bestowing hope for the future of our country”.

M M Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence, called for welfare measures to be implemented for retired offices of the Armed Forces. “A lot needs to be done for wards of ex-service men,” Raju added.

Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the function about the safety breach that occurred in connection with the President’s choppers, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said that more caution should have been exercised when directing the aircraft.

LANDSCAPE

National Military Memorial is a landscape concept without any buildings or structures above the ground.
The memorial will comprise of Veeragallu, a monument, and three display structures from the Army, Navy and Air Force as well as skylights. An underground pedestrian subway is also proposed to connect the Nehru Planetarium to the centre of the Memorial.

This subway has an underground museum and a motivation hall that will have records of the history of martyrs and achievers.

The work on memorial is expected to be completed by 2010.