Narendra Modi has endorsed the policy of Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had decided that the government should not build any memorials for presidents prime ministers and political leaders, nor should it spend money to organise homage on birthdays and death anniversaries, except for Mahatma Gandhi. The original decision was taken by the Vajpayee government after it turned down the demand of Meira Kumar to convert the Krishna Memon Marg bungalow in which her father and one time deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram had lived. The government felt that the luxurious bungalows in the heart of New Delhi built by the British should be used to accommodate ministers, MPs, Judges, senior officers of army, navy, air force and of ministries, rather than be converted into memorials.
The cabinet decision puts on hold the demand of Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh that the bungalow in which his father and short term prime minister Charan Singh lived should be made into a memorial. Ajit Singh who has lived in this house as a MP and Union Minister was evicted by the government after he lost the Lok Sabha elections. Though Ajit Singh lived in the house for nearly three decades, he had not made this demand, but only when he was asked to vacate the house, his party made the demand. The houses in which the first three prime ministers - Teen Murti House of Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Nehru Place house of Lal Bahadur Shastry and the Safdarjang Road bungalow of Indira Gandhi have been made bungalows and are administered by trusts.
Interestingly, the Modi cabinet did not make any decision on the two memorials permitted by Manmohan Singh, who succeeded Vajpayee in 2004. Singh, who had made Meira Kumar first a minister and later Lok Sabha speaker agreed to lease the Krishna Menon Marg to the Jagjivan Ram Trust for a period for 25 years. Secondly Singh allotted three smaller bungalows, usually allotted to senior MPs, to Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati for conversion into the Bahujan Prerana memorial in memory of the party's founder Kanshi Ram.
The United Front government in 1997 had allotted four small bungalows on Janpath for construction of the Ambedkar memorial, as the father of the Indian constitution had lived in one of these bungalows when he was a member of the constituent assembly and as union law minister. But the memorial project has taken a long time. Another piece of land was allotted to build a memorial in memory of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Shyam Prasad Mukherjee near India Gate. The project for which Vajpayee laid foundation did not make any progress during Manmohan Singh government, but now urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu has asked his officials to fast-track it.
Tailpiece: The process of dividing the buildings and land between Andhra Pradesh and Telengana in central Delhi have been completed as per the Reorganisation Act. Both the states are looking for builders who can build new bhavans free of cost, while commercially selling extra floor space created.
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