The long wait for a ‘War Memorial’ in the provisional State Capital of Uttarakhand got over on Wednesday with the inauguration of the work at Cheerbagh, Dehradun cantonment. The work on the memorial is expected to be complete in the month of December this year.
The work was formally inaugurated by former Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha, Tarun Vijay and General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Uttarakhand Sub Area Major General Balraj Mehta.
Vijay who was instrumental is providing approval of Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the memorial and providing necessary budget of Rs 2 Crore from his Member of Parliament local Area Development (MPlAD) fund said that the work on the memorial is beginning due to the inspirational leadership of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.
“This tells a story of our system which moves too slow even in matters like this. Even now if this work has begun, the entire credit goes to PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah and defence minister Arun Jaitely,’’ he said. Vijay also appreciated efforts of Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, DG Estates Jojneshwar Sahrma, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat, Vice Chief lt Gen Sharath Chandra and GOC Central Command lt Gen B S Negi for their help and cooperation for war memorial.
He said that in all probability, the Defence Minister Jaitely would inaugurate the war memorial when it is completed in December.
The war memorial is designed by a Doon based architect Vicky Rawat.
The construction work will be monitored by a high power committee set up by GOC, Central command, lucknow headed by a Brigadier. Dehradun Cantonment board is in-charge of the entire project including seeing its time bound construction.There is plan to install gadgets and mobile Apps to help visitors download the biographies and pictures of the martyrs.
The walls of the memorial will have the names of 1500 martyrs of Uttarakhand belonging to Garhwal, Kumaon and Gorkha rifles.In the ceremony the Veer Naaries from Gorkha Sudhar sabha, the oldest Gorkha organisation in the region and several other women organisations presented Rakhis to the Major General Mehta to be sent to jawans at Doklam and Siachin.