The Congress in 2010 wanted to install the statue of former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy inside the GHMC Head Office near Tank Bund. The Telugu Desam (TD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed this, however the GHMC council — then headed by Congress Banda Karthika Reddy — decided to go ahead with setting up the statue.
Hyderabad: Ending a decade-long controversy, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to shift three statues located at the entrance of its Head Office that have been wrapped with white cloth for over 15 years without being unveiled.
The Congress in 2010 wanted to install the statue of former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy inside the GHMC Head Office near Tank Bund. The Telugu Desam (TD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed this, however the GHMC council — then headed by Congress Banda Karthika Reddy — decided to go ahead with setting up the statue.
To spoil this attempt, TD members hours before N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was sworn in as Chief Minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in November 2010, installed statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar on either side of the statue of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
The statue of Reddy was comparatively higher in height than Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar's. The GHMC feared controversy and backlash if they removed the statues and wrapped all of them in white cloth. The TD members then had also approached court and since then the statues have not been unveiled.
BJP members had also condemned the decision of the GHMC Council installing the statue to Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
The issues related to these statues frequently resurface and there have been instances where officials too sought some resolution instead of statues being wrapped in a cloth making first-time visitors curious.
On Thursday, the GHMC Standing Committee approved the proposal to shift the existing three statues to suitable places and install a water fountain there.
In addition to the proposal of shifting these statues to suitable locations, the GHMC Standing Committee -- comprising Congress and AIMIM members -- on Thursday approved 18 more proposals. They pertained to different civic works including hiring vendors to maintain streetlights for the next two months, construction of stormwater drains, lake restoration, etc.
