The Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Government of India had undertaken the commemoration of the 150^th Anniversary of First War of Independence, 1857 during 2007-2009.  Details are annexed.

 

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, however, the National Implementation Committee for commemoration of 150^th 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.  

 

Annexure

 

COMMEMORATION OF THE 150^TH 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 150^th Anniversary of First War of Independence 1857, the 60^th Anniversary of Indian Independence, the Centenary Celebration of Adoption of Vande Mataram as the National Song and the 75^th 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 11^th 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 9^th 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 28^th September, 2007 from Delhi and it had completed a round of the country on 28^th 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 18^th 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 28^th September, 2007 and 28^th 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 11^th to 13^th March, 2011.  The National Seminar on Kuka Movement is yet to be organized. 

 

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