Mumbai: The state government has postponed the much-awaited foundation stone laying ceremony of Dr BR Ambedkar's statue at his proposed memorial at the Indu Mills compound in central Mumbai originally scheduled for today. Many leaders from the Ambedkar movement had expressed displeasure on the sudden announcement of this programme. With the postponement of the stone laying ceremony, the controversy has receded.
The foundation stone laying ceremony of Dr Ambedkar memorial was suddenly announced yesterday. According to the schedule, the function was to be held in the presence of chief minister Uddhav Thakre. It was declared by MMRDA late night that the event was only for selected invitees. As Coronavirus infection is on the rise, curfew was declared in Mumbai from yesterday. So, it was said that the event was restricted to only a few people.
But, many important persons including Prakash Ambedkar and Anandraj Ambedkar, members of Ambedkar family were not invited for the event. Anandraj had expressed severe displeasure for not being invited. Even, an invitation was not sent to the central minister and a key leader in the Ambedkar movement, Ramdas Athawale. Not only this, but some ministers in state government were also kept in dark. A minister, off the record, said that many ministers were also not briefed by the CMO. The sources said that few ministers who were invited got the invitation at the last moment. This attracted all over displeasure over the event.
In a statement, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said, "There is no bias against any political party or organisation." He said the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had planned the function after the state cabinet gave its approval to the revised structure of the statue.
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"I pointed out to the officials that such an important event should have the participation of all. All the dignitaries will be invited in the next few days for a good function," he said.
The chief minister said the postponement of the event should not be politicised.
Finally, due to several mistakes in the planning of the event and the subsequent anger in various sections, the state government has cancelled the ceremony for now. The revised date has not been announced yet. But, Chief Minister Uddhav Thakre has explained that the event will be held later with the participation of all people.
As per the new design, the height of the statue is 450 feet, which includes a 100 feet pedestal. The cost of the project has gone up from Rs 709 crore to Rs 1,100 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had performed the ground-breaking ceremony at the memorial site in October 2015.
With inputs from agencies
