Building canals to Sardar Sarovar dam a real tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel: Congress

Union Mines Minister Dinsha Patel today criticised the Narendra Modi government's move to build the tallest statue in the world of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and said the real gratitude to the first Home Minister of the country would be the state completing canal works of the Sardar Sarovar dam.

"In my personal opinion, to spend Rs 2,500 crore to build a statue of Sardar Patel is not proper. The money should be used properly. If they would have built canals for Sardar Sarovar dam on the river Narmada, it would be a real gratitude to him," Patel told reporters here.

Patel, the Chairman of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, has invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi for a function to inaugurate the national museum on Sadar Patel here on October 29.

Patel has renovated the Sardar Patel Memorial here at the cost of Rs 28.54 crore in which a new museum has been built.

Two days after the inauguration of museum by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Modi would be laying the foundation stone for the gigantic statue of the first home minister, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on October 31.

The statue will be built at the cost of Rs 2,500 crore.

However, the canal work for the dam, which promises to take water to the parched areas of the state, is yet to be completed by the BJP government.

"I have read in newspapers that the Gujarat Chief Minister is asking for iron from people all over the country (for the project). But when I inquired with sculptors, I came to know that such statues are usually made of copper and other metals. I don't know what will he do with the iron collected from the people," Patel said.