320 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
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* JALLIANWALA BAGH NATIONAL MEMORIAL BILL
The Minister of Law (Dr. Ambedkar): I beg to move :
“ That the Bill to provide for the erection and management of a National memorial to perpetuate the memory of those killed or wounded on the 13th day of April, 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh, be taken into consideration.”
The event which is known as Jallianwala Bagh is wellknown to every Indian and I do not think it is necessary to say anything more about it. What is relevant for purposes of this Bill is that soon after the incident certain well-known Indians decided to prepetuate the memory of those who were killed and wounded on that particular day.
Dr. Tek Chand (Punjab) : The session of the Indian National Congress held at Amritsar under the presidency of Pandit Motilal Nehru decided it.
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes, and they collected an amount of money—some ten lakhs, I understand.
Dr. Tek Chand: Yes, ten lakhs.
Dr. Ambedkar: Out of that they purchased two or three pieces of land as are mentioned in the Schedule, which are being held as part of this trust. There is already a trust and trustees, but they are of informal character. It is now proposed to give this trust a statutory basis and the proposal is this, that the trustees will fall into three different classes : certain trustees who are to be life trustees, another set of trustees who are to be ex officio trustees, and three other persons who will be nominated by the Central Government. They will hold the land and the properties mentioned in the first part of the Schedule and the cash and movable property which according to my calculation comes to about Rs. 3,13,757-1-0. The object of the trust is to maintain this Memorial and to see that it is kept up and looked after properly.
- P. D., Vol. 10, Part II, 20th April 1951, pp. 7179-81.