Soil from 13,000 villages to be used for Jallianwala memorial

AMRITSAR:THE Amarinder Singhled Punjab government will build a memorial on the occasion of the centenary commemoration of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre here with soil from all 13,000 villages of the state.

As per an official note issued by the chief minister’s office, the rural development has been designated as the nodal department to coordinate with the panchayats across the state for the purpose.

The chief minister has also asked Amritsar deputy commissioner to identify a strategic spot in the city where the memorial could be erected with soil brought from these villages. He also directed the cultural affairs and tourism department to engage with the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, which had created the Partition Museum at Town Hall, Amritsar, to conceptualise and plan the memorial.

“The chief minister has asked the principal secretary, cultural affairs, to coordinate with all the departments concerned to ensure a grand function at Amritsar on April 13, 2019. Captain Amarinder also asked the additional chief secretary (home) to make elaborate security arrangements to ensure hassle-free access to the people for paying respects to the martyrs at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial. At the same time, he said, the devotees visiting Sri Darbar Sahib should not be put to any sort of inconvenience caused during the centenary commemorations,” the note read.