JOIN USThe BMRCL chief has warned that if a clear decision was not taken in the next 10 days, the Metro work would have to be stopped.
The matter was elaborated in a letter Sivasailam wrote to Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and the Social Welfare Principal Secretary, E Venkataiah, on October 25, 2011. When the government gave its nod for a Metro station in front of Vidhana Soudha, it also decided to shift the statues of Jawaharlal Nehru, Ambedkar and Subhash Chandra Bose. It also issued orders in this regard on June 4, 2009 and February 6, 2010. But it clarified that the shifting would be temporary and the statues would be reinstalled at their respective places once the Metro work was over.
Accordingly, the statues of Nehru and Bose were shifted out. But the opposition to the shifting of the Ambedkar statue by some dalit organisations delayed the government decision on the matter. It held many a meeting with the said organisations, but they did not budge.
The Ambedkar statue is surrounded by boulders which have to be removed for Metro work.
A technical committee set up by BMRCL reported that the shifting was inevitable. Minister for Social Welfare, Narayanaswamy, however, said the Metro work could be carried without shifting the statue out.