Anna, citizens for memorial watch

The unique war memorial, erected by the defence authorities with funds collected by the Express-Citizens8217; War Memorial Committee from citizens, corporate houses and the State Government as well as the Pimpri- Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, was dedicated to the nation on August 15 last year by Governor P C Alexander. The Express-Citizens8217; committee was dissolved after the Southern Command gave the undertaking that it would maintain the memorial.

8220;We are sure the army, or for that matter, the defence ministry has enough funds to maintain the memorial,8221; said Mehendale.8220;Or else let them confess that they cannot spare a few thousands a month for this noble cause. In that shameful eventuality, citizens will not lag behind once again and would raise a corpus to ensure that the memorial is maintained impeccably for posterity.8221;

Brig retd N B Grant, chairman of the now dissolved Express Citizens8217; War Memorial Committee; Lt Gen retd Y D Sahasrabuddhe and Lt Genretd B T Pandit are the vice-presidents of the new monitoring committee of citizens8217;.

Members of the committee include: Air Marshal retd A M Ramdas, Maj Gen retd S C N Jatar, Hawaldar retd Krishna Sawant, Prem Malhotra 8211; mother of martyr Rishi who was killed in action in the Kashmir valley, Col retd Anil Athale, Lt Navy-retd Anil Sawant and Qaneez Sukharani.

Pune8217;s is the only national war memorial erected in India after independence dedicated to the men of the three wings of the armed forces. It is the only war memorial in South Asia to have been erected with civilian initiative and funds. Names of 1,080 martyrs from the State have been inscribed on marble on panels around the memorial.

It has already become one of the prominent landmarks in Pune, visited every day by tourists and citizens alike.