2 min readNew DelhiMay 26, 2014 12:23 AM IST
First published on: May 26, 2014 at 12:23 AM IST
The Ministry of Culture is set to be a focus area for the Narendra Modi government and top on the agenda would be the Dandi Memorial Project in Gujarat. Events for the approaching centenary celebrations of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya would be another.
With Modi mentioning Upadhyay’s birth centenary in a speech, the Culture Ministry is waking up to the new political order. Preparations are already being initiated at the Ministry to keep up with the new Prime Minister’s ideas.
One of the leading lights of Jan Sangh, Deen Dayal Upadhaya’s thoughts guide the BJP’s philosophy.
Last year, Modi, as Chief Minister of Gujarat had written to the Centre on the delay in sanctioning funds for the Dandi Memorial Project for which the state government submitted its proposal.
Highly-placed sources told The Indian Express that the groundwork has been finally done for the project. IIT Bombay is designing the memorial and is said to have made progress.
In 2005 on the 75th anniversary of the Dandi march, outgoing PM Manmohan Singh, who held the Culture portfolio, announced the project. Then came Kumari Selja followed by Chandresh Kumari Katoch as culture ministers but things picked up pace only in the last quarter of 2013-14.
The project estimated to cost over Rs 200 crore is to commemorate the Dandi march led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 . A memorial is proposed on a 15-acre plot in Dandi, where Gandhi ji and fellow marchers picked up salt to break the salt law of the British rulers.
A statue of Gandhiji is proposed inside a pyramid of light, followed by a cluster of life-size sculptures of the group of 80 fellow marchers. Another part of the plan is to create a ‘heritage walk’ along the Sabarmati-to-Dandi route which Gandhiji had taken.
Replication of the route will be part of the main memorial through 24 spaces representing 24 halts.
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