Withdraw restrictions on height of Ganesha idols: Karnataka Cong chief to govt
Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar on Wednesday urged the State government to withdraw restrictions on the height of Ganesha idols.
The Ganesha festival is just two days away and the State government's new decision imposing a meaningless restriction on Ganesha idols placed in houses to 2 feet and 4 feet in public places, is troubling the life of the idol makers," Shivakumar said.
This order should be withdrawn immediately or the idol-makers should be compensated, he said.
The government in its guidelines for the celebration of the festival issued recently had restricted the height of the idols to four feet at public places and two feet at residences.
Noting that millions of Ganesha idols have been made over the last 2 months, and the government's decision to impose such a restriction at the last moment would put idol-makers into trouble, Shivakumar said, "If the government had said this two or three months ago, the idol-makers would not have made smaller idols."
Ganesha idol-makers, who had no income at the time of Covid, have made a small amount of money. If this restriction is imposed at the last minute, where should they go? The government has so far not paid a single rupee to Covid-affected people," he was quoted as saying by his office in a press release.
Terming the decision as a "sheer apathy" on part of the government, as it makes the life of people who make the idols of God miserable, the KPCC chief said, "It is unfortunate that the state government has created a huge gap between the devotee and the Lord in the process of restricting Ganesha festival celebrations."
"If the government makes such a decision at the last minute, should the idols (that are tall) be placed in front of the house of the decision-makers?" he said, as he demanded the decision makers to purchase the idols.
Shivakumar further said he was not questioning the COVID rules, but was questioning the government's unscientific decision.
"The lives of those who are dependent on this profession (of idol-making) should not come to the streets. Ganesha festival is just two more days away, the government should either withdraw this nonsense restriction or give relief to the idol makers," he demanded.
