Gandhinagar, 11 June 2013

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today appealed to the farmers of 7-lakh villages in India to donate their discarded agricultural implements for recycling the iron to build the world’s tallest ‘Statue of Unity’ to commemorate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Addressing an All India Conference on Livestock and Dairy Development at Mahatma Mandir here, he said this is the minimum gesture farmers of India owe to Sardar Patel, known as ‘Iron Man of India’. He was not only the most illustrious son of a farmer who motivated farmers to join India’s freedom struggle but also brought over 500 princely states join ‘Union of India’.

Mr. Modi said that India could not forget Sardar Patel’s singular contribution to the ‘Unity of India’ and the farmers from all corners of the country could show best their emotional attachment to the ‘Statue of Unity’ project through their though small but unique involvement.

The condemned implements would be collected from each and every village of India through a countrywide campaign from Sardar Patel’s birthday on October 31 to January 26.

He gave details of the statue, proposed to be built on the Narmada River near the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) across the river, to about 7,000 delegates present at the conference. The ‘Statue of Unity’ is proposed to be an embodiment of national unity.