Maharashtra government has&nbsp;postponed the ground-breaking ceremony of the Chhatrapati&nbsp;Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea scheduled for this month&nbsp;to September-end, citing prevailing drought in the state.
The grand memorial which, among other things, will&nbsp;consist of a record-breaking tall statue of the warrior king&nbsp;mounted on a horse and wielding a sword, has been planned in&nbsp;the sea off the Girgaum Chowpatty coast.
The government's move has invited criticism from the&nbsp;Opposition Congress and NCP, which have alleged the BJP-led&nbsp;ruling coalition is not serious about the issue and is merely&nbsp;playing politics in the name of Shivaji.
"The ceremony for Shivaji Maharaj memorial had been&nbsp;planned keeping in mind his stature. Prime Minister Narendra&nbsp;Modi had even given an assurance of his presence on May 22&nbsp;when the ground-breaking ceremony was to be performed," Vinayak Mete, Chairman of Shiv Smarak Samiti, told PTI.
The Samiti is overseeing the Maharashtra government's&nbsp;ambitious project.
The Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai was chosen as the&nbsp;venue for a grand celebration after the foundation laying&nbsp;ceremony and invitation cards, too, were distributed, he said.&nbsp;
However, given the prevailing drought, it would not be&nbsp;appropriate to organise a grand celebration, Mete said.
"The drought condition in the State is only getting&nbsp;severe by the day. In such a situation, it would not be proper&nbsp;for us to hold grand celebrations in the name of Shivaji&nbsp;Maharaj. Keeping in mind the severe drought, we have decided&nbsp;to postpone it to September-end. The exact date will be&nbsp;finalised based on the PM's availability," said Mete, an MLC.&nbsp;
Reacting to the development, Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria said the government is adopting delaying&nbsp;tactics as it is not ready with a definite plan.&nbsp;
"The BJP-led government is only interested in playing&nbsp;politics in the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji. They are&nbsp;deliberately delaying the ground-breaking ceremony as they do&nbsp;not have a definite plan for the memorial. The government&nbsp;recently organised a three-day Sindhudurg festival. Did the&nbsp;government not think of water scarcity then?" he asked.&nbsp;
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "This government&nbsp;had used slogans in the name of Shivaji Maharaj while&nbsp;campaigning for the elections. They could have done a small&nbsp;programme and at least commenced work on the memorial. Not&nbsp;doing so only shows the government's lackadaisical attitude&nbsp;over the issue."
The government has already made a provision of Rs 100&nbsp;crore for the memorial, which is to be completed by 2019.&nbsp;

Maharashtra government has&nbsp;postponed the ground-breaking ceremony of the Chhatrapati&nbsp;Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea scheduled for this month&nbsp;to September-end, citing prevailing drought in the state

Drought forces ground-breaking ceremony of Shivaji memorial in Mumbai to be put off till September

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Home / Mumbai / Mumbai News / Article / Drought forces ground-breaking ceremony of Shivaji memorial in Mumbai to be put off till September

Drought forces ground-breaking ceremony of Shivaji memorial in Mumbai to be put off till September

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast