Mumbai, Feb 22 The Maharashtra government has honoured 17 prominent personalities who contributed massively to the development of Mumbai with their busts being installed in a garden here.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J.P. Nadda unveiled the busts standing in the Kilachand Garden, at Girgaum, with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and other dignitaries present.
The top personalities, including several Bharat Ratnas, are -- philanthropist-businessman Jagannath Shankar Sheth; Chief Architect of Constitution B.R. Ambedkar; Father of Indian cinema Dhundiraj Govind Phalke a.k.a. 'Dadasaheb Phalke'; freedom movement martyr Babu Genu Said; revolutionary Vinayak D. Savarkar; aviator J.R.D. Tata; industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, nuclear scientist Homi J. Bhabha; singer Lata Mangeshkar; media barons Ramnath Goenka and Ashok Kumar Jain; Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray; Seth Motichand Shah; litterateurs V. V. Shirwadkar a.k.a. 'Kusumagraj' and Dr. Tukaram Bhaurao Sathe a.k.a. 'Annabhau Sathe', and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.
There is also a representative bust dedicated to the Koli fisher community, considered the original inhabitants of Mumbai when it was a group of seven islands in the 16th century, and later, given as the dowry of Portuguese Princess Catherine Braganza who married King Charles III of England in 1662.
Times Group Managing Director Vineet Jain lauded the initiative aimed at celebrating the icons who shaped the financial and cultural capital of India, and Ashok Kumar Jain, who had a great affinity and affection for Mumbai.
"Mumbai was at the heart of so much that he did and worked for while establishing one of Asia's largest media companies," said Jain.
The idea for a garden of busts, mooted by Maharashtra Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, was to honour influential figures, and acknowledging their contributions to Mumbai's progress in various facets like economic prosperity, safety and cultural enrichments in the past several centuries to make it one of the global financial hubs.
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