Days after Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma announced that a memorial dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will be built in the national Capital, steps are afoot to allocate up to six acres of land in the campus of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) near India Gate for its construction.
The move is in keeping with the long-standing demand of the Netaji’s INA Trust for allotment of land in “prominent area” of Delhi for construction of memorial of the freedom fighter. “A decision in this regard has been taken by the Culture Ministry. The Ministry will allot land at the campus of IGNCA,” said sources in the Ministry.
Spread over across a 26-acre campus, IGNCA, considered a Congress legacy, was established in 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts.
“Out of this 26 acres, about 4-6 acres of land which, at present, is lying unused will be allotted for setting up the memorial of Netaji which will depict his life and freedom struggle,” sources said. last year, the Urban Development Ministry had written to the Culture Ministry to consider allotting land for setting up the freedom fighter’s memorial, they added.
Earlier, Netaji’s INA Trust had also rejected the 1.6 acres of land allocated by Urban Development Ministry at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and sought about six acres of land near Rajpath for the memorial, sources said.