War memorial to come up at Palampur: Shanta

Our Correspondent

Palampur, February 6

Member of Parliament and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar today said a war memorial would be set up at Palampur soon.

“A 10-acre plot at Saurabh Van Vihar near the town had been earmarked for the project. The Palampur war memorial will be bigger than that in Dharamsala as there is no shortage of land at Palampur,” Shanta Kumar said.

He told The Tribune that a society would be formed to run and maintain the project. He said he had already discussed the matter with the Nek Chand Rock Garden Society, Chandigarh, which would provide the technical knowhow to establish the memorial.

He said he would also urge other institutions like the Ministries of Defence and Home to extend the technical support to him so that one of the best war memorials could be set up at Palampur.

Shanta said statues of all martyrs like Vikram Batra, Saurabh Kalia and Sudheer Walia who had sacrificed their lives in wars fought before and after Independence, militancy operations and the Kargil war would be installed in the war memorial.

He also sought suggestions from other experts and asked them to come forward and give their suggestions to make his project a success. He said he had already released Rs 40 lakh for the project from his MP LAD fund and more funds would be procured from other sources.

Shanta said Himachal’s contribution of personnel to the defence forces was the highest in the country. Besides the Kargil war, the state had lost hundreds of youths in militancy-related incidents and proxy war being fought with Pakistan in the past 15 years in J&K and other parts of the country. Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi districts of the state were the worst affected as hundreds of jawans were killed in Jammu-Kashmir and North Eastern states while fighting militancy and Maoists in the past 10 years.

He said unfortunately most of the projects named after the soldiers killed in the Kargil war in the year 1999 had been left mid-way for want of funds and other official bottlenecks by successive governments that ruled the state. Despite repeated requests to the government by the families of martyrs, no headway was made to complete the projects launched in memory of martyrs.