Maharashtra government recently informed the Bombay High Court that more than ?2.5 crores had already been spent on the construction of a national monument of the general Tatya Tope at Yeola in Nashik district.

• The Central government has sanctioned funds to the extent of 75% of the estimated cost while the rest will be borne by the State.

Background:

A PIL was filed in the court seeking a direction to authorities to change the place sanctioned for the monument from Yeola taluka to a plot in Angangaon village in Yevla tehsil of the same district, which belongs to the Irrigation department.

However, the Court has declined to provide an interim relief on the belated approach and said 50% of the construction work of the monument had already been completed. 

About Tatya Tope:

Also known as Ramachandra Pandurang Tope, he was one of the most notable Indian freedom fighters and a general in the Rebellion of 1857.

• Born in 1814 in Nashik, Maharashtra, Tatya Tope was the only son of Pandurang Rao Tope and his wife Rukhmabai
• Tatya Tope was an intimate friend and the right hand of Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Peshwa
• In May 1857, Tatya Tope won the battle over the Indian troops of the East India Company at Kanpur
• He forced General Windham to retreat from the city of Gwalior.
• He collaborated with Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi to seize Gwalior.

Tatya Tope was defeated by Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) on December 6, 1857. He was hanged on April 18, 1859, in General Meade’s camp at Shivpuri.