Delhi News Today: Controversy has been going on for several days regarding the installation of the statue of the brave queen Rani Laxmibai in the park near Shahi Idgah in Delhi. Delhi High Court has strongly reprimanded the Shahi Idgah Managing Committee for the words used in its appeal. The court has instructed his lawyer to apologize in writing to the court for this.
According to the High Court, the place where the statue of Rani Lakshmi Bai is to be installed is DDA land and that land has nothing to do with the royal Eidgah. For the last three days, MCD has started work on the land allotted by DDA for installing the statue.
Today i.e. Saturday (September 28) the work has been continued on war footing by MCD since morning. At present, a boundary is being constructed at the place given for the installation of the statue of Rani Laxmibai.
The statue was installed in 2008
At present this statue is installed at the roundabout near Rani Jhansi flyover. This statue was installed by Rani Jhansi Laxmibai Memorial Committee in the year 2008 with the permission and cooperation of MCD.
After this, MCD constructed Rani Jhansi flyover in Paharganj area with the funds received from the Centre. Which was almost completed in 2018 and the flyover was opened to the public in the same year.
In the year 2018, the chairman of the standing committee was Veena Virmani. Veena Virmani told ABP News that in the year 2018 itself, it was noticed that after the construction of the flyover, the traffic problem has gone away to a great extent, but the traffic is still not good at many places.
Reason for shifting the statue?
Veena Virmani said that after this, a meeting was held between UTTIPEC, PWD and Traffic Department to improve the traffic. In which two suggestions were given – short term traffic system and long term traffic system.
He told that it was suggested by PWD that there are three roundabouts on this road, due to which there is more traffic and if these are removed then the traffic can become normal.
According to Veena Virmani, former chairperson of the Standing Committee, there is a statue of Rani Jhansi installed at a roundabout, the talk of installing it at another place was raised. Under the long term plan, PWD, DDA, Traffic and MCD officials were present in the UTTIPEC meeting.
He told that in the year 2019, it was decided to shift the statue of Rani Jhansi from the present location. For this, MCD requested DDA to provide space. DDA approved allotment of land in a corner of the park (Idgah) for shifting the statue of Rani Jhansi.
What did the High Court say?
The Waqf Board had approached the High Court asserting its ownership rights in the DDA park. Due to which the High Court had imposed a stay till September 19 and both were given time to declare their ownership rights. On Wednesday, the High Court gave its verdict in favor of DDA in this matter.
MCD started work
The responsibility of installing this statue rests with MCD. Therefore, after the court order, MCD has started making the boundary at the place allotted through DDA. According to the information received from MCD officials, the work of MCD is to construct the boundary, but the work of making the platform to install the statue at that place is to be done by DDA.
This committee looks after
Gulshan Rai Virmani, member of Rani Jhansi Lakshmibai Memorial Committee, said that in the year 2008, our committee had got the statue installed after a tough struggle. There is a controversy regarding installing it at another place. The work of the committee is also to look after the statue and when the statue is to be installed at another place, the committee will get this work done with the help of MCD and DDA.
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