(a) whether the Government had celebrated the 150th anniversary
of the 1857 Revolt/ First War of Independence:
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has issued a notification acknowledging
the participation/association of any persons or places including Meerut
city in Uttar Pradesh in the historic 1857 revolt:
(d) if so, the details thereof;
(e) if not, the reasons therefor?
MINISTER OF HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION & MINISTER OF CULTURE
(Km. SELJA)
(a) and (b) Yes, Sir. The Government of India had undertaken the commemoration
of the 150th Anniversary of First War of Independence, 1857 during 2007-2009.
Details are annexed.
(c) to (e) No Sir. However, the National Implementation Committee for
commemoration of 150th Anniversary of First War of Independence, 1857
had approved a Project for preparation of a National Register of Martyrs
covering the period 1857-1947. This Project has been entrusted by
Ministry of Culture to the Indian Council of Historical Research. The
Project is likely to be completed by 2013.
COMMEMORATION OF THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1857
AND OTHER RELATED EVENTS
Government of India had constituted a National Committee under the
Chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister for commemoration of the 150th
Anniversary of First War of Independence 1857, the 60th Anniversary of
Indian Independence, the Centenary Celebration of Adoption of Vande Mataram
as the National Song and the 75th Anniversary of Martyrdom and birth Centenary
of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
A National Implementation Committee under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble
Minister of Human Resource Development had also been constituted to chalk out
the programmes and activities for celebration of the above mentioned events.
A calendar of events was prepared in consultation with a Committee of
historians from the Indian Council of Historical Research for scheduling
various programmes during the above mentioned commemoration period. The
following programmes were organized :-
(i) Inaugural Function
An inaugural function was organized at Lal Quila on 11th May 2007 in
collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the
Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan.
(ii) Release of commemorative Postage Stamp
A programme was organized at Bombay on 9th August 2007, in the memory of
the Quit India Movement in collaboration with the State Govt. of Maharashtra.
(iii) Mobile Exhibition on Train
A Mobile Exhibition on Train with the name ‘Azadi Express’ was flagged off
on 28th September, 2007 from Delhi and it had completed a round of the
country on 28th September, 2008. It toured more than 60 cities and towns
and was visited by lakhs of people.
(iv) Commemorative Logo
A Logo commemorating the above event was also released to all the Ministries/
Departments and State Governments for using in the stationery items.
(v) Issue of Commemorative Coins
A set of commemorative coins of Rs. 100 and Rs. 5 denominations had been
released by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 18th April, 2008.
(vi) Commemorative Chairs
NIC had decided to establish 12 Chairs in various Universities, against
which funds for setting up of 10 Chairs had been released. A corpus
fund of Rs. 2.00 crore has been released for each Chair and funds were
released to the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the name of Shaheed
Bhagat Singh, Rs. 6.00 crores to IGNOU for Chairs in the names of
Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Shah Nawaz of INA and Shaheed Kartar
Singh Sarabha. Rs. 8.00 crores were released to Jamia Millia
University for the establishment of chairs of Saifuddin Kitchlew,
A.M.Khawaja, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Shri M.A Ansari.
Rs. 4 crore was released as corpus for the establishment of Chairs of
Aruna Asaf Ali and Tatya Tope in Delhi University.
(vii) National Register of Martyrs
A project for preparation of a National Register of Martyrs has been
entrusted to ICHR. Funds amounting to Rs. 1, 40, 46,000 have been
released to ICHR (out of the total sanctioned amount of Rs. 1.87 Crore).
The project is likely to be completed by 2013.
(viii) Birth Centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh
(a) Programmes were organized on 28th September, 2007 and 28th September,
2008 at Amritsar and at New Delhi in collaboration with the State Govt. of
Punjab and the Govt. of NCT of Delhi.
(b) It was decided to construct a museum/memorial in the native place
of Shaheed Bhagat Singh at Khatkarkalan, Nawanshahar, Punjab at a total
cost of Rs. 16.81 crores. The Government of India has release a sum of
Rs. 7.50 crores to the State Government of Punjab for this purpose.
(c) NIC had also approved a project for construction of a memorial
in the name of Smt. Vidya Watiji, mother of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, at
Moranwali Village, Punjab. Government of India has sanctioned a total
budget outlay of Rs. 438.12 lakhs for this Project, against which an
amount of Rs. 219.06 lakhs has been released to the ITDC which is the
executing agency.
(ix) Commemoration of Kuka Movement
(a) Setting up of Light & Sound Show and the setting up of Museum and
Picture Gallery at Namdhari Darbar at Bhaini Sahib, Ludhiana with a total
Budget outlay of Rs. 3.75 crores. Ministry of Culture had released an
amount of Rs. 2,26,55,000.00 to the ITDC in March, 2009 for the above
Projects.
(b) Approval had been given for organizing a National Seminar on the
Kuka Movement at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi within the budget outlay of
Rs. 25 lakhs and a Multi-Media Show on the Kuka Movement within the
budget outlay of Rs. 89.00 lakhs. Against the total amount of Rs. 114 lakhs
for these Projects. Ministry of Culture had released an amount of
Rs. 92.00 lakhs upto March, 2011. The Multi-Media Show had been organized
by Govt. of NCT of Delhi from 11th to 13th March, 2011. The National Seminar
on Kuka Movement is yet to be organized.