Uddhav approves plaque plan, Sainiks to shift out of park

The corner of Shivaji Park where Bal Thackeray was cremated will be developed as his samadhi with a small garden and a plaque while a larger memorial will come up on the plot adjacent to the mayor's bungalow nearby. Shailesh Gaikwad and Sayli Udas Mankikar reports.

The corner of Shivaji Park where Bal Thackeray was cremated will be developed as his samadhi with a small garden and a plaque while a larger memorial will come up on the plot adjacent to the mayor's bungalow nearby.

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In a piece in the party organ, Saamna, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday publicly stamped his approval on the formula his party and the state government had worked out, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Thackeray also said Sainiks on their own would move the existing memorial and end their vigil at Shivaji Park. The samadhi is being designed by Sanjay Surve, the man who designed the Samyukta Maharashtra museum at Shivaji Park. A proposal on this will be submitted to the government soon.

Sources close to the developments said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had made his agreement conditional on the Sena moving the makeshift memorial on its own. Things started moving fast after Chavan's 45-minute meeting with Thackeray's emissary Milind Narwekar and senior Sena leader Subhash Desai on Tuesday. Thackeray and Chavan also spoke on the phone on Wednesday.

Residents at Shivaji Park breathed a sigh of relief that the Sena was planning to only name the samadhi Shiv Tirth. "We are hoping that they occupy only a small strip of land which does not interfere with any other activity," a resident said.