Park is yours

Park is yours

CM ends war on memorial
Preserves people's right to lung spaces in the city

Srikanth Hunasavadi. Bangalore



It's a moral victory for the green brigade including the residents in the neighbourhood Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park of Bangalore.
The state government on Thursday decided to stop the ongoing construction of the National Military Memorial (NMM) at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park with immediate effect. The war memorial, instead, will come up at another location in the city. The location is yet to be decided by the state government.
Chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, while replying to JD(S) leader MC Nanaiah's question on the issue of building a war memorial inside the park area in the legislative council, said: "Taking into consideration the concerns of environmentalists and intellectuals, we have decided to stop the ongoing construction of war memorial immediately, and we will not take up this work in the park. We will construct the war memorial at a different spot, and the place will be identified soon. I will direct the officials to identify a suitable place as early as possible."
Yeddyurappa's announcement was the first convincing sign of a closure on an issue that raged since the foundation stone for the memorial was laid on February 10, 2009. The NMM Trust, which was formed on February 28 last year, had proposed to have a sixty-foot monolithic stone at the motivation hall with names of martyrs etched on it.
The trust had planned a bandstand of the Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy, besides a 120-foot flag pole.
The monolithic stone was planned to carry writings in Kannada and English, explaining the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers during wars.