Amid controversy over allotment of land for construction of memorial for former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at his burial site at Pei Karumbu near here, State Revenue Secretary B. Chandramohan inspected the site and held talks with owners of adjacent lands for acquiring them on Wednesday.
A day after the issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar declaring that his Ministry would lay the foundation stone on July 27 on the occasion of the first death anniversary of Kalam with the available land, Mr. Chandramohan, accompanied by Collector S. Natarajan, inspected the site.
As of now, the government had made arrangements for making available a little more than three acres of land, including the 1.36 acres already allotted, informed sources said. After visiting the site, the Secretary held talks with at least four parties, who owned about three acres of land behind the burial site, the sources said.
The private landowners, who quoted an exorbitant rate when the Collector held a round of talks with them a couple of days ago, offered to lower the rate, the sources said, adding the private parties were willing to give the land for construction of the memorial.
After officially handing over 1.36 acres of land, the State government could not make available additional lands in the absence of any formal request either from the Ministry of Urban Development or the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the sources said.
Meanwhile, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has taken up the task of building the memorial, was busy raising a five-foot-high pedestal for installing the life-size bronze statue of Kalam. The statue, similar to the one installed at DRDO complex in Hyderabad, had already been made ready and it was expected to arrive here by Friday, the sources said.
The DRDO proposed to build a ‘world class’ memorial, comprising a museum on Kalam, a knowledge centre and an auditorium.
