Centre agrees in principle to give land for Ambedkar memorial

A committee of concerned Secretaries will be formed soon to decide on the modalities,Chavan and Union Textiles Minister Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting.

Indu Mill,which is now defunct,is part of the state-owned National Textiles Corporation (NTC) under the Ministry of Textiles.

Both Houses of Maharashtra Legislature had recently adopted a unanimous resolution asking the Centre to hand over the entire 12.5 acre Indu Mill land to the state government for construction of a memorial of the architect of the Constitution.

The resolution came after the Centre offered handing over four acres of land for the memorial. The resolution said the Centre should hand over the entire land,which in the first place belonged to the state government,at no cost and the state would take responsibility of building a memorial.

The land is to be used to build the memorial and a cultural and an educational centre. The state government would bear the cost of constructing the memorial.

Indu Mills is located next to Chaityabhoomi at Dadar,where Ambedkar was cremated on December 6,1956. Chaityabhoomi is a national monument and is a place of pilgrimage for the followers of Ambedkar.