Delhi Assembly to house Kalam belongings till AAP govt readies

Delhi Assembly today passed a proposal for keeping all the belongings of former President APJ Abdul Kalam on the House premises till the time a 'Knowledge Centre' comes up in his memory in the national capital as proposed by the ruling AAP here.
The proposal was moved by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and was passed by voice vote by the 70-member House along with another proposal to instal pictures of Kalam inside the Assembly.
Kirari MLA Rituraj had moved the second proposal on a day on which the House also saw some uproar when AAP MLA Somnath Bharti moved a private member's Bill calling for the Centre to "reverse its decision" and allot a plot of land given to BJP for the building of a school in Kalam's memory.

Talking about the proposal adopted today, Goel said, "The Assembly will provide two-three rooms for keeping all of Kalam's belongings. These will be permanently kept here until the 'Knowledge Centre' comes up in Delhi.
"Kalam was a kind of person whose house had Ramayana, the Gita, Quran and Bible and it is our responsibility to preserve his memory."
Participating in the discussion, Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra criticised the Centre for setting a deadline of October 31 for Kalam's house at 10, Rajaji Marg, to be cleared of his belongings. Several AAP MLAs participated in the discussion and said that the Centre should not have ordered that Kalam's house be vacated.

"Kalam's family has given its consent for providing all the belongings of the former President. The government has also formed a three-member committee to facilitate this transfer of Kalam's belongings to their rightful place," the minister said.
He added that the Assembly would "like to thank the Speaker for giving his consent for keeping all of Kalam's belongings on the premises of Delhi Assembly till the time the 'Knowledge Centre' comes up in Delhi".
Recently, Kalam's elder brother, APJM Maraikayar, had urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to set up a 'Kalam National Centre for Knowledge Discovery' in Delhi.