Mahatma Gandhi memorial proposed in Bhubaneswar buried under govt apathy

Bhubaneswar,Oct 2: The Mahatma Gandhi memorial, which was proposed to be installed at the center of Odisha’s capital city in 1948, has not yet been a reality. Rather it has been dropped from the city master plan.The sacred ash of the father of the nation which was treasured to be installed in the proposed minar, was finally immersed in the Ganga in 1996. Sources said, the Gandhi-Minar was proposed by the German Architect Otto H. Koenigsberger, who designed the planned Bhubaneswar city in 1948. Accordingly, Gandhi-Minar was included in the master plan of the Bhubaneswar Town-Planning. Specifically, the Gandhi Minar was decided to be established at the centre of the Bhubaneswar town, The minar complex was proposed to contain a 100-feet high statue of Gandhiji. Koenigsberger in his note mentioned that the statue of Gandhiji at Bhubaneswar would be more meaningful. There would be a patriotic ambience in the proposed memorial. However, the patriotic vision of the great German Town-Planner and Prime Minister  Jawaharlal Nehru has been given a decent burial. The proposed site of the memorial has now housed Odisha Legislative Assembly. A small size statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been installed before the Assembly building. Meanwhile, as many as 73 years have passed on. The lawmakers, town-planning authorities and the authorised architectures and above all the subsequent governments have almost forgotten the grand plan. Eminent Gandhian writer Prahllad Sinha said the sacred ash of Gandhiji was treasured in an urn to put it in the proposed Gandhi-Minar. It was ultimately immersed at the Triveni Ghat (the confluence of three sacred rivers-Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) in 1996 as the project did not come up at all. Veteran journalist Pradosh Pattnaik said the Odisha government should erect the proposed memorial soon. Similarly, Urban Planner Piyush Ranjan Rout said had the Gandhi memorial project been set up in Bhubaneswar, it would have been as famous as Trafalgar of London and the Stuttgart city of Germany.