Axe effect at park vexes walkers again

Axe effect at park vexes walkers again
Plans To Chop 30 Trees Within The Park For A Proposed War Memorial Has Struck Regular Walkers Hard
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Sunday, 6 am. Regular walkers at the Indira Gandhi Musical Park on Raj Bhavan Road got together for yet another discussion about the proposed war memorial here. A majority of them came in from the three apartments around the park, and some from surrounding areas like Vasanthnagar and Ali Asgar Road.
Going by ABIDe and BDA’s joint action agenda, the memorial will be ready by December 2010, to commemorate Kargil Vijay Diwas. No doubt, Bangalore needs this war memorial. But, the one issue still worrying these walkers is: ‘Why here?’ The 30 trees to be cut within the park for the memorial has struck them hard.
“We are now used to trees being cut for road-widening. Should we also lose trees within public parks? Secondly, wouldn’t it be more relevant to have it on prominent defence land like the Manekshaw Parade Ground, considering it is also along Reach-1 of Namma Metro?’’ asks Abhay Jain, a resident of Vasanthnagar and regular walker in the park.
In the recent past, even ABIDe members like Mohandas Pai and other prominent citizens, like neurosurgeon Dr Sudheer Pai and Sudha Nambiar, Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s mother-in law, are said to have expressed their dissent to the proposed location.
Together, members of the Krishna Apartments Owners Welfare Association (bang opposite the park) had written to chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on March 11, 2010. However, with no reply yet, they have decided to meet governor H R Bhardwaj, their immediate neighbour, to find a way out of the issue.
THE OTHER SIDE
It’s been more than six decades after Independence, but there’s no proper national war memorial anywhere in India. It’s not about ABIDe or a Rajeev Chandrasekhar, but the people of Bangalore together building a national war memorial to honour the war heroes. The idea is to preserve this for future generations to be inspired by the heroes. Having such a memorial on defence land is probably the most ridiculous and baseless argument. Even this park was once LRDA land. However, the only opposition could be the green cover. But we have addressed this issue and we assure, it will be a completely green design. The eucalyptus trees will be the only ones to be cut for it
Rajeev Chandrasekhar | CONVENER, ABIDE Seriously, the walkers opposing it, citing green concerns, can take a walk out. We want the war memorial here. Earlier, it was the soldier’s statue at Minsk Square that was shifted for the Namma Metro, and now it’s extended to this war memorial. It’s a city with no proper war memorial. In fact, we wanted it right in front of Vidhana Soudha but finally, we got this land. We have worked very hard on the entire plan, the conceptual details and even a model that was approved by the entire committee. We have waited for two years now. How long must we wait just for land?
Col G V Sreedhar (retd.) | MEMBER, WAR MEMORIAL STEERING SUB-COMMITTEE