JOIN USStatue shift: Meeting of stakeholders soon
The Public Works Department will convene a meeting of all the stakeholders to select a location for shifting the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar from the precincts of the Vidhana Soudha to facilitate Metro work.
A senior official of the Department told Deccan Herald that the modalities of shifting the statue will be decided in the meeting in which officials from the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), representatives of dalit groups and others will take part.
A Division Bench of the High Court comprising acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice S Abdul Nazeer on Monday disposed of petitions pertaining to shifting of the statue after all the stakeholders arrived at an amicable solution. The State government has agreed to shift the statue to a location to be suggested by the dalit organisations.
Sadashiv Reddy B Patil, Secretary, PWD, said a copy of the court order was awaited to proceed further in the matter. He said the Department will engage men and machine to carry out the task and the help of an external agency will be sought only if necessary.
The statue, for the time being, has been lifted from its pedestal and is supported by belts. It sank by about 19 mm a few days ago due to the underground station works of the Metro.
The High Court observed that it was not safe and respectable to keep the statue suspended and directed the BMRCL to complete the work at the spot as soon as possible so that statue could be reinstalled at the earliest.
Other statues shifted
The statues of Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose in front of the Vidhana Soudha were shifted as soon as the Metro work began, about two years ago.
The government was in a dilemma on shifting the statue of Ambedkar following opposition from a few dalit groups.
The matter went to the High Court and on December 12, 2012, the Court directed the State government to shift the statue temporarily, within 15 days. Meanwhile, dalit organisations moved the court contending that there was no need to shift the statue and the government sought two months’ time to resolve the issue.
The BMRCL, however, submitted that it was facing problems in executing the work with the statue in its place.