The government has not approved the allocation of land for “individual memorials” to any political leaders in the past five years, the ministry of housing and urban development informed Parliament on Monday.

“No such allocation has been done during the last five years,” said Tokhan Sahu, minister of state for housing and urban affairs.

His response came on a query by Parimal Nathwani, a member of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party in the Rajya Sabha, on the total number of individual memorials for national political leaders approved by the government over the last five years.

Nathwani had also sought to know details about the plots allocated, their locations and the expenditure incurred.

Sahu also informed Parliament that barring Mahatma Gandhi, the government did not sanction any financial grant for the birth and death anniversaries of leaders in the last five years. Any such event is organised by the families of the departed or by the Trusts or societies formed in their memory.

Sahu apprised Parliament about the cabinet’s guidelines for the remembrance ceremonies of departed leaders framed in 2013-2014.

According to the guidelines, the government should not set up any samadhi for the departed leaders. The Trusts or societies concerned can set up such memorials but they have to bear the cost of land acquisition, development and maintenance of the memorial. However, the government may consider sanctioning one-time grants to such Trusts or societies on a case-to-case basis.

The government had in January decided to set aside memorial sites for former President Pranab Mukherjee and former Prime Minister Manmohan at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, a designated memorial ground for prominent dignitaries.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cremation had taken place at the Smriti Sthal in August 2018.