Maha Cabinet approves hike in height of Ambedkar memorial

Maharashtra cabinet has cleared the increase in the BR Ambedkar memorial height to 450 ft, including the rise in statue height to 350 ft from 250 ft. The memorial is coming up at Indu Mill in Dadar. The project cost was revised to Rs 1100 crore from Rs 700 crore. The imposing memorial will be completed by 2022, announced Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar here on Wednesday. The state cabinet has cleared the revised cost submitted by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Authority (MMRDA), which will spend money on the construction of the grand memorial.

Pawar said the state cabinet has approved the rise in the height of the memorial and clarified that there won't be any shortage of funds. ''Although the foundation laying ceremony took place in 2015 during the BJP-led government, memorial work went on slowly. All approvals from the Central government are in state's possession. The cabinet also asked various state departments to give their clearances in the next eight days so that the memorial of an international standard will be completed by 2022,'' he noted.

Pawar informed that the memorial will house state-ofthe-art library and other amenities, including a theatre with 1,000 seats and lecture halls with a capacity of 400 people.

Minister of Social Justice Dhananjay Munde said his department has been bestowed the responsibility of memorial completion in time. He informed that MMRDA will be the nodal agency.

Ordinance for One Ward One Corporator

Maharashtra cabinet has given approval for the promulgation of an ordinance to amend the rules for returning to the one ward, one corporator system from the existing multi-member ward system in municipal corporations and councils, except for the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation. FPJ broke the story today. The state cabinet approved amendments to the rules. The BJP government in 2016 had introduced multimember ward system, replacing the one ward, one corporator system.