Ready to pay for Ambedkar Bhavan construction, only if...

.....BR Ambedkar’s grandsons together prepare a plan for the restoration, says the chief minister

The state government will allocate funds for restoration of Ambedkar Bhavan — the recently demolished structure from where Dr BR Ambedkar had first launched the Dalit movement — if the two grandsons of the Dalit icon prepare a joint plan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the Legislative Council yesterday.

Ambedkar Bhavan, located in Central Mumbai, was demolished last month by the People’s Improvement Trust, claiming that the ‘dilapidated’ structure would be replaced by a grander one.

“If Prakash Ambedkar and Anandraj Ambedkar (grandsons of Babasaheb Ambedkar, both heading different factions of Dalits) come together and prepare a plan for the restoration of Ambedkar Bhavan and Budhbhushan Printing Press, the government is ready to allocate funds for restoration,” Fadnavis said while replying to a debate on a calling attention notice moved by Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe and others.

Prakash Ambedkar is the leader of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, while Anandraj heads a political party called Republican Sena.

The structure was built by Ambedkar out of his own money to provide a safe haven for ostracised Dalits at that time.

It also housed a printing press for publishing Dalit literature. Congress leader Narayan Rane had moved a supplementary query in this regard.

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