P.C. Sai Babu, has urged the government to initiate steps for the reinstallation of the Venkaiah statue
VIJAYAWADA: A statue of the creator of the National Flag, Pingali Venkaiah, is lying unsung in the backyard of the Bapatla Municipal office.
Citing this, the secretary of the Forum for Better Bapatla, P.C. Sai Babu, has urged the government to initiate steps for the reinstallation of the Venkaiah statue.
Sai Babu said Venkaiah’s statue was lying unattended for the last 10 months along with a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru. “Both are covered with some dirty old banners,” he said. These had been removed during the course of road widening in front of the railway station. The civic authorities have not reinstalled these statues despite repeated requests, Sai Babu said.
Sai Babu said Pingali Venkaiah's statue was set up near the railway station in 2009 by the Bapatla Arts College students. The students of BSc Computer Science saved their pocket money and set up the statue on January 21, 2009. Daughter Sitamahalakshmi was honoured at that meeting by Gade Venkata Reddy, the then MLA, M Seshagiri Rao, former MLC, I Venkateswara Reddy, the then Tenali RDO, and others.
The Forum For Better Bapatla has urged the authorities for the immediate reinstallation of the two statues.
