Not only was the memorial renovated on a war footing in the past one week, but there was a sizeable presence of people from all walks of life and government.
The memorial of the late chief minister, Balwantrai Mehta, at Suthari village of Abadasa taluka in Kutch district, about 100 km west from Bhuj, wore a renovated look on his death anniversary on Saturday, thanks to a DNA report published on September 7 highlighting its neglected condition.
The late chief minister's small plane was shot down by Pakistani fighter planes on September 19, 1965 during the Indo-Pak war. Not only was the memorial renovated on a war footing in the past one week, but there was a sizeable presence of people from all walks of life and government.
Jayanti Bhanushali, MLA of Abadasa, who specially attended the function, said that he would take up the responsibility of arranging basic facilities like light, water and a good garden at the memorial. Besides, a four-km-long approach road from the village to the memorial site would also be constructed.
"I will see to it that these things are in place in the shortest possible time, so that tourists could easily come here to pay their homage to the man who had pioneered panchayati raj in the country," he said.
The matter was also discussed at the district coordination committee meeting, where it was decided that the project would be posed for funding from the MLA's local area development fund. Stating that there could be no politics of any kind in the case of people who had laid down their lives for the country, Bhanushali said that the state government took special interest to keep alive the memories of such people.
He further said that a national-level memorial to Pandit Shyamji Krishna Verma, who fought for the country's freedom from a foreign land, would soon be a reality. His ashes were specially fetched by chief minister Narendra Modi from Geneva in Switzerland.
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