On the first death anniversary of singing legend Lata Mangeshkar, her fans on Monday rued the lack of movement in plans to build a memorial and upkeep of sites associated with her in her birthplace Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Mangeshkar was born in Sikh Mohalla Galli here on September 28, 1929 and the state government, after her death in Mumbai last year, had promised several initiatives to pay tribute to one of the most feted artistes of the past 100 years.
The Sikh Mohalla Galli is now popularly known as 'court wali galli' due to the proximity to the district court complex and also 'chaat wali galli' for the line of snack shops, while the house in which the Bharat Ratna awardee lived now hosts a garment shop with her mural on the outer wall.
"When Lataji was alive, several people used to come to this street on her birthday. However, on her first death anniversary today, the lane is almost deserted. Her memories are being neglected. The state government must build a memorial," chaat seller Govind Soni told PTI. There is a delay in executing projects that would keep alive the memories associated with her, rued fan Laxmikant Pandit.
Incidentally, on September 28 last year during the National Lata Mangeshkar Award ceremony, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said a music college, a music academy, a museum and a statue of the legend would come up in Indore.
Giving an update on the announcement, Jayant Bhise, director of the state government's Ustad Alauddin Khan Academy of Music and Art, on Monday said the Government Music College of Indore has already been named after Mangeshkar.
"Preparations are underway to build a museum in her memory and her statue in the city's Rajendra Nagar auditorium. An artwork dedicated to her will be installed at the corner of the street where the home that she was born in is located," Bhise added.
