Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday launched a campaign to collect soil from different sacred places in the state's over 12,500 villages for Sardar Patel's statue in Gujarat.
The campaign started from the chief minister's native village, Badal, in Punjab's Muktsar district, 250 km from here.
During the campaign, soil and agricultural implements will be collected for a month and then sent to Gujarat for constructing the 182-metre high statue of Patel, the country's first home minister.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi last year announced that the statue will be built at a cost of Rs.2,500 crore near the Sardar Sarovar Dam close to Navagam in Gujarat.
Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma said the iron agricultural implements collected from Punjab villages would also be sent for building the statue.