Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government has offered land to Manmohan Singh’s family in the Rajghat complex to build a memorial for the former prime minister.
The plot is next to the memorial of Pranab Mukherjee, former Congress leader who was the president when Singh was Prime Minister in the UPA government. Singh died in December.
The Union government is waiting for the family to build a trust and land will be allocated once it’s formed, a report in NDTV said quoting sources. The government will provide ₹25 lakh to the trust to build the memorial, the report said.
The Congress party had slammed the government for not being able to find a suitable location for Singh’s memorial, after the former Finance Minister’s death on December 26, 2024. In response, the BJP reminded the Congress that it never built a memorial for PV Narasimha Rao, the former Prime Minister and veteran Congress leader.
Manmohan Singh, often referred as the architect of India’s economic reforms, passed away at the age of 92 following age-related complications. He was taken to Delhi’s AIIMS when he lost consciousness at his residence.
Earlier in January, officials from the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) visited sites around the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial in the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal and listed some spots where the memorial could be built.
The Union government is waiting for the family to build a trust and land will be allocated once it’s formed.
Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to hold the last rites of Singh at a place where his memorial could be built.
The memorial land can only be allocated to a trust, making its formation a prerequisite for the project. Once the trust is established, it will apply for land allocation, followed by the signing of an MoU with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) for construction.
Singh was the finance minister in 1991 when India witnessed groundbreaking reforms that opened the country’s economy to the world. He also served as the Prime Minister for two terms between 2004 and 2014.
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