VIPs to visit it today for his birth centenary.
Arrangements are being made at Kalpally Burial Ground, where former president Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy’s samadhi (tomb) today exists in shockingly miserable environs and utter squalor, to pay tributes on the occasion of his birth centenary.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah and other dignitaries are expected to visit the samadhi on Saturday and pay tributes to the former president, whose birth centenary is being observed this year.
Reddy’s body was cremated at Kalpally with full state honours on June 3, 1996. Then prime minister HD Deve Gowda and former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao had attended the ceremony.
However, many forums, including Bharathinagar Residents’ Welfare Association, Freedom Fighters’ Forum and others, had to protest demanding that the state government and the BBMP construct a memorial at the spot. It took almost a decade for the BBMP to sanction a few lakh rupees for the construction of samadhi adjacent to the crematorium.
The BBMP had spent money to construct the samadhi but was not ready to spend a few hundred rupees to put up a signboard on the tomb.
“We had to struggle a lot to convince the BBMP to construct the samadhi for the late Sanjeeva Reddy, who held many important posts at state (Andhra Pradesh) as well as at the national level.
We want either the state government or the BBMP to construct a memorial at this spot,” said NS Ravi, president, Bharathinagar Residents’ Welfare Association.
The Andhra Pradesh government had deputed GSVV Satyanarayana, chief programme officer with the department of culture, to oversee the arrangements at the samadhi.
“Raghu Veera Reddy, minister for revenue and Anam Ramnarayana Reddy, minister for finance and planning will visit the samadhi to pay tributes to Sanjeeva Reddy on Saturday morning.
Siddaramaiah and minister for transport Ramalinga Reddy will also visit the memorial,” said Satyanarayana.
Reddy, though he hails from Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, preferred Bangalore to spend his sunset days.
“He wrote a will advising family members to cremate his mortal remains in Bangalore,” said a government official.
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