Rane forgets Kusumagraj memorial

NASHIK, SEPT 20: Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who had visited Nashik on death of veteran Jnanpith Award winner Marathi litter...

NASHIK, SEPT 20: Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who had visited Nashik on death of veteran Jnanpith Award winner Marathi litterateur Vishnu Waman Shirwadkar alias “Kusumagraj” in March and announced an immediate grant of Rs 50 lakh for the creation of a memorial worth Rs 5 crore, has failed to keep his promise, prompting the Chairperson of the Kusumagraj Prtisthan and retired Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari to seek contributions from common people for the project.

Dharmadhikari said that six months after the announcement by Rane, the Pratisthan had not yet received even a single paisa out of the first installment of Rs 50 lakh from the Government. He was speaking on the occasion of the announcement of the “Janasthan Award” given every alternate year by the Kusumagraj Pratisthan to Marathi authors. The award is to be conferred on veteran Marathi litterateur Vyankatesh Madgulkar at a function in Nashik on October 31.

Dharmadhikari said that over the past six months, he had sent fourletters to the CM, the chief secretary and concerned authorities in Mantralaya, but they were not even aknowledged. He said that he had asked the Government to intimate the Pratisthan about the exact nature of decision taken on the creation of Kusumagraj’s memorial, but nobody had bothered to reply.

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A disappointed Dharmadhikari said that the Pratisthan had reached a stage, where it was felt that if at all a memorial would be created, it would be only from contributions from Nashikites and Kusumagraj’s readers elsewhere. He appealed to the people of Nashik to contribute according to their capacity for the memorial project.

Dharmadhikari said that he did not want to politicise the issue and that the delay in acknowledging letters might be attributed to election workload. He further said that the memorial would not comprise Kusumagraj’s statue but would be a museum of his articles and will promote reading culture by holding book exhibitions etc.

He pointed out that the Government had sent a proposal ofmemorial asking suggestions from the Pratisthan and it was promptly complied with. But, after that nothing had happened. He said that it had caused embarrassment to the Pratisthan as the impression created was that the Government had given the funds but the Pratisthan had failed to do anything.

Rane had visited Nashik on the death of Kusumagraj on March 10 this year.

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