After 15-Year Wait, GHMC To Unveil Two Statues at Head Office
Statues kept covered since 2010 finally inaugurated after long political dispute.
Hyderabad: Ending the 15-year-long controversy over the installation of statues at GHMC head office, the civic body will unveil two statues — one of Mahatma Gandhi and the other of Dr B.R. Ambedkar — inside its office premises. The statue of Mahatma Gandhi is located near the mayor’s office, while the statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar stands near the commissioner’s office.
This installation ends the practice of officials covering three statues — Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and former chief minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy — with white cloth.
The controversy dates back to 2010 when the Congress sought to install the statue of Rajasekhar Reddy inside the GHMC head office near Tank Bund.
Though the TD and the BJP opposed the proposal, the GHMC Council, which was then headed by Congress mayor Banda Karthika Reddy, decided to proceed with installing the statue of the former chief minister.
In an attempt to counter this, TD members, just hours before N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister in November 2010, installed the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B.R. Ambedkar on either side of the Rajasekhar Reddy statue.
Since the statue of Rajasekhar Reddy was taller than those of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B.R. Ambedkar, GHMC officials feared backlash if they attempted to remove or rearrange the statues.
As a result, all three were wrapped in white cloth to avoid further political tension. For nearly 15 years, the statues remained covered and were never inaugurated. The TD had also approached the court, which contributed to the prolonged stalling of the unveiling.