NEW DELHI: It will take some more days for the govt to allot land for former PM Manmohan Singh’s memorial as spaces for construction of a memorial can be only given to a trust, which in this case is yet to be established, sources said. They added that even in the case of a memorial for former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, land was allotted to the Atal Samiti Nyas (Trust), which was registered more than a month after his death.
The govt can earmark the land for the memorial but it has to be built by a trust, officials said.
Sources said some preliminary assessment of available land parcels in the Rajghat area is being carried out for Manmohan Singh’s memorial. “It will take some more days as the trust, which is yet to be established, needs to apply for the land,” a source said.
A member of the Atal Samiti Nyas, which built the Sadaiv Atal (the samadhi and memorial of Vajpayee), recalled that after the demise of the former PM, the trust was established. “We applied for land, and subsequently, an MoU was signed with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). The design of the samadhi was made by the School of Planning and Architecture. The trust released fund for construction to the CPWD,” the member said.
Vajpayee’s memorial is spread over 1.5 acres of land at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, where he was cremated on Aug 17, 2018. “Because of a change in policy, the land was allotted only to the trust,” the member said.
TOI has learnt that the govt is now looking at options to zero down on one to 1.5 acre land in the areas meant for memorials around Raj Ghat for Singh. They added that it takes at least four to five days for registration of a trust.
Sources in Congress said they have no fresh update on the memorial.
At present, there are 19 memorials in and around the Rajghat complex, which includes that of former presidents, PMs and deputy PMs. The two exceptions are Sanjay Gandhi and Lalita Shastri, the late wife of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri.
