Ready to face bullets for Dr Ambedkar memorial: Ramdas Athawale

THANE: Criticising the Union and state governments over "delay" in setting up Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's memorial on the now defunct Indu Mill land in central Mumbai, RPI leader Ramdas Athawale today said he and his partymen were ready to face bullets for the cause.

Athawale said this while addressing the party's 'Nirdhar Melava' at Thane's Central Maidan here.

"The Central and the state governments are delaying the process of construction of the memorial at the Indu Mill land. Now, if the Maharashtra government does not start the work on the memorial by December 5, we will perform the bhoomi-pujan for the project the next day," Athawale said.

"Let the government fire at us. We will face any number of bullets, but will crash into the mill premises and start the work. We are prepared to shed our blood on that day for the sake of Babasaheb," he said.

The RPI leader alleged that the state government was delaying the process despite the National Textile Corporation (NTC) agreeing to hand over the Indu Mill land for the memorial.

"Now we are left with no other option but to agitate for our demand. The Chief Minister (Prithviraj Chavan) has said that the government would give a befitting reply if there is an agitation, but let him be aware that we are also strong enough," he said.

In a related development, MPCC president Manikrao Thakre while addressing a meeting at Wada today said, "Since decks have been cleared and that the government is in the process of starting the work on the Dr Ambedkar's memorial, political parties are now clamouring to take credit of the same."

He added that it would be a world-class memorial.