Shimla, June 26: A war memorial, mentioning the names of all 87 soldiers from Una district who had made the sacrifice during wars since 1948, is ready and awaiting inauguration at the municipal park in Una city. Constructed through voluntary donations, mostly by ex-servicemen and their families, the memorial has come up at a cost of Rs 5.5 lakh, said Yashpal Thakur, president of the state unit of the All-India Ex-Sevicemen Service Council.
He said the names of all martyrs had been engraved in golden letters on a black granite.Thakur said since the memorial was complete, they had approached the district administration for a formal inauguration function. He said the district administration had informed them that since a 140-foot-high Indian Flag was also planned to be erected in the park, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would be urged to hoist the Tricolour and inaugurate the memorial on the same day.
Baldev Dogra, district president of the All-India Ex-Servicemen Service Council, said a sanction letter of Rs 1 lakh grant from the Lok Sabha MP Local Area Development Funds (MPLAD) had been received. He said the funds had been sent by the Planning Department to the Una Municipal Committee for implementing the job, but said work on the memorial had already been completed through public contributions.
Office-bearers of the Ex-Servicemen Service Council are demanding that the MPLAD funds be allocated to them for expenditure during the inauguration function. District Planning Officer Vinod Kumar said the funds were specifically meant for construction of the memorial and that if these were to be spent on some other activity, the sanction orders would have to be got modified from the MP.
Vinod Kumar said the Planning Department would allocate funds only to a government executing agency and that the MC could in turn get into a memorandum of understanding with the ex-servicemen body for proper utilisation of the government funds.Meanwhile, Yashpal Thakur said it was a matter of pride that 67 war widows from Una, termed Veer Naris, were alive and would be invited to the memorial inauguration function. He said the council would ensure that similar memorials were constructed in all districts of the state.
Source Tribune India
