Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel statue
SHILLONG: The Gujarat Government has sought cooperation of farmers of Meghalaya by requesting them to donate their agricultural goods to construct the statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel aptly named ‘Statue of Unity’ on the banks of Narmada River in Gujarat.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Gujarat Cabinet Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramanlal Vora who came here with a delegation of MLAs and Cabinet Ministers said that the proposed statue will be largest statue of world with a height of 182 metres, double of Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
For constructing the statue, the Gujarat Government will collect soil and water from every village of India and similar teams have been dispatched to other parts of the country.
The delegation met the Assam Chief Minister prior to their arrival in Shillong and sought for his cooperation.
However, the delegation could not meet the Chief Minister due to the busy schedule of the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma.
It may be mentioned that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation of the statue in October and the target deadline to complete the Statue is six years.
In addition, various infrastructures would be built around the Statue at a whopping budget of Rs 2000 crore and the Gujarat Government has appointed a consultant who built the Burj Khalifa at Dubai for the Statue.
While refusing to admit that the campaign is for political mileage in view of the Lok Sabha elections, he said that the main objective was to create unity among all sections of people and the message of unity will be echoed through the Statue.
The 14 member delegation would head to Nagaland after their Meghalaya trip.
It is expected that altogether 120 crore farmers from India would contribute agricultural goods to construct the statue of the Iron Man of India.