14 years on, no decision on Mahatma statue

Successive governments have been sitting on a 14-year-old Cabinet decision to build a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the India Gate lawns, reports HT.

Successive governments have been sitting on a 14-year-old Cabinet decision to build a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the India Gate lawns. Not only has the statue not come up, but its exact location has also not been decided yet.

HT Image

This revelation has come in response to an RTI filed before the Central Public Works Department.

While the application had sought to know whether there was a proposal to replace a statue of King George-V - removed from under the present empty canopy at India Gate in July 1968 - by one of the Mahatma, the reply denies that the Mahatma's statue was to be installed in the empty canopy.

However, it admits that the Cabinet had in 1994 decided to develop the area around India Gate as August Kranti Udyan and install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi somewhere in it, and says that there were many alternative proposals for the exact spot of the statue.