The Pune Municipal Corporation’s standing committee has approved a proposal to develop a Pune Accord memorial and install a full-length statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar within the Yerwada Central Jail complex before the centenary of the historic agreement in 2032.
The proposal was submitted by Nationalist Congress Party corporator Suhas Tingre. Standing committee chair Shrinath Bhimale said the committee had approved it. The plan places the proposed memorial within a prison complex that is associated with the events leading to the signing of the Pune Accord on 24 September 1932.
The Pune Accord followed discussions between Mahatma Gandhi, Dr B.R. Ambedkar and other leaders after Gandhi began a fast at Yerwada Jail against the political arrangements linked to the British government’s Communal Award. The agreement is regarded as an important event in India’s social justice and political history.
Under the proposal, a full-length statue of Dr Ambedkar would be installed at the jail complex. The memorial would also bring together original documents, correspondence, photographs and newspaper records related to the Pune Accord. These materials would form the basis of a museum at the site.
The proposal also calls for the preservation of Gandhi Yard and a historic mango tree within the prison premises. The area would be developed as a heritage site, linking the proposed museum and statue to the physical locations associated with the 1932 events.
The project will require coordination between the Pune civic body, the state government and the prison department because Yerwada Central Jail is under the state government’s jurisdiction. The proposal calls for a committee of history researchers, architects and heritage conservation experts to be established to plan the project’s funding, design and approvals.
The memorial is not the first planned attempt to document the Pune Accord at Yerwada. Planning for a ‘Poona Pact Museum’ had been proposed in 2007 on the occasion of the agreement’s 75th anniversary. The latest proposal sets a new target of completing the memorial before 24 September 2032, when the accord will complete 100 years.
The next stages identified in the proposal are the preparation of a project plan, coordination among the civic, government and prison authorities, and decisions on funding, design and statutory permissions. The report did not specify the project’s estimated cost or the proposed construction agency.
