4 months on, Tankbund statues stay broken

HYDERABAD: A drive down the Tankbund road greets you with a unique juxtaposition of beauty and the beast. While on one side, the beauty of the lake welcomes you, the other side is a reminder of shunned dignity. The statues of poets and scholars which were destroyed during the Million March on March 10, might have just been castings for the agitators, but were memoirs of legacy for many, including people from Telangana. But even after four months, the vandalised statues have not been restored.A cabinet sub-committee headed by tourism and culture minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar and with four other ministers - M. Maheedhar Reddy (municipal administration), K Jana Reddy (panchayat raj), N Raghuveera Reddy (revenue) and D Prasada Rao (roads & buildings) was formed to frame guidelines for re-installing the 16 damaged statues on Tankbund road.  The government also sanctioned `75.70 lakh in May for the re-installation of 12 of the statues - Annamacharya, Ballary Raghava, Brahmanaidu, Errapragada, Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Krishna Rao, Mutluri, Raghupathi Venkataratnam Naidu, Siddendra Yogi, Sir Arthur Cotton, Sri Krishnadevaraya and Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chowdary.         Despite the sanctioning of the project, it seems like the job of restoring the statues is taking more time than expected. "The tenders were called and the parties were identified. But it may take three more months for the completion of the installation of statues," said M Kantha Rao, director, department of cultural affairs.When asked if there would be a threat to the restored statues, deputy commissioner of police, central zone, Akun Sabharwal said, "It depends on what statues will be re-installed. And if the government instructs us to, we will provide security."Jasveen Jairath, a citizen and convener of Saving Our Urban Lakes, an NGO said, "I feel there will be a threat if the statues are re-installed. It was such a shame that these statues of eminent scholars and poets were destroyed. I think the government should consider the political scene and then proceed with the restoration."