No demand for Gandhi statue at India Gate,RS told

In an answer to a question by parliamentarian Rajeev Shukla,Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy said there was a decade-old plan in the ministry to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the India Gate.

In an answer to a question by parliamentarian Rajeev Shukla,Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy said there was a decade-old plan in the ministry to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the India Gate. The plan,however,has been put in cold storage following a writ petition in the matter.

On Thursday,Roy told Rajya Sabha that in a meeting of the Union Cabinet held in July 1992,the government had passed a proposal to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the India Gate,leaving the exact location to be decided by the Minister of Urban Development in consultation with others.

In 1995,a Group of Ministers,on directions of the Union Cabinet,considered the matter and recommended that the statue be installed at the present site of the canopy.

But in a response to a writ petition,the Delhi High Court passed an interim order in July 1995 restraining the government from altering/removing/ demolishing the canopy at India Gate complex.

The High Court finally disposed of the matter in March 2005.