'Ga Di Madgulkar's memorial will be completed soon'

Minister of State for Urban Development Bhaskar Jadhav recently assured the legislators to complete the memorial of noted poet Ga Di Madgulkar in the city at the earliest.

He made the promise in the state legislative council session in Nagpur while responding to the issue raised by MLC Mohan Joshi.

Joshi had pointed out that the standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had approved a proposal for developing Madgulkar’s memorial at Wakdewadi on the Pune-Mumbai highway. Till date, Rs2.38 crore have been spent for the purpose and yet the memorial has not been completed.

Ga Di Madgulkar was a noted poet and his most important contribution is ‘Geet Ramayan’ — Ramayan in the form of Marathi songs. He used to live in a bungalow at Wakdewadi.

Jadhav assured that a high-level meeting would be held in Mumbai on the issue and the memorial would be completed at the earliest.

The civic body had made a provision of Rs2.75 crore in 2008-09 civic budget for the memorial. In 2009-10, a provision of Rs1.06 crore and in 2010-11, a provision of Rs2.71 crore was made. Out of these provisions, a retaining wall was built on the bank of Mula river by spending Rs2.38 crore. The land required for the memorial and garden is 49,550 square metre and 15,250 square metre has been acquired by the PMC.