Mumbai, Dec 15 (IANS): Republican Party of India (RPI) activists staged a road blockade on the Eastern Express highway here Thursday to press their demand for 12.5 acres of a mill land in Dadar, central Mumbai, for a proposed memorial to Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar.

The protest came in the wake of the central government announcing that it will allot four acres of the Indu Mill land at Dadar instead of the entire 12.5-acre plot for the proposed Dr Ambedkar memorial.

"We will strike with fresh protests if we are not allotted the entire 12.5-acre plot of the Indu Mill land for the memorial," RPI chief Ramdas Athawale told IANS.

"It is the central government land and we will not rest till we get it," he added.

Party workers blocked traffic on the Eastern Express highway and burnt effigies of union ministers and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press their demands.

In the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Textiles Panabaka Lakshmi Wednesday made an announcement that the National Textile Corporation would part with four acres for the memorial.

On Dec 6 (Ambedkar Jayanti), adopting an aggressive stance, nearly a thousand RPI activists broke police barricades and "captured" the Indu Mill compound in Dadar, demanding allotment of the land for constructing a memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar.