President of Karnataka Congress D Ok Shivakumar on Thursday questioned as to why authorities funds had been used to put in a 108-feet statue of Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda on the worldwide airport right here.
The statue is to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 11. Shivakumar stated the Bengaluru Worldwide Airport Restricted (BIAL), which runs the Kempegowda Worldwide Airport, ought to have taken up and accomplished the work on the statue. He referred to the land and funds offered to the airport by the federal government and the earnings the power earns.
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The challenge, moreover the statue, has a heritage theme park in an space of 23 acres devoted to the sixteenth century chieftain, all costing the federal government ₹84 crore.
With the set up of the statue forward of Meeting polls subsequent 12 months, there appears to be competitors between political events to assert credit score for the legacy of Kempegowda, who’s revered, particularly by the Vokkaliga group that’s dominant in Previous Mysuru and different components of south Karnataka.
“Doing it (putting in the statue) utilizing authorities funds is an enormous crime. We (Karnataka govt) have given the land and likewise funds for the Bengaluru Worldwide Airport Restricted. Out of 4,200-acre land, 2,000 acre was given at solely ₹6-lakh per acre. Together with cash, they’ve shares. It (BIAL) ought to have used its cash, why use authorities cash,” Shivakumar stated.
Chatting with reporters right here, he stated, “Airport ought to have executed it, is it not incomes? Hasn’t their property worth elevated, we’ve got given over 2,000 acre for industrial exploitation. Why did you want authorities cash? Why is the Chief Secretary quiet? There was no want to make use of authorities cash.”
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The BJP authorities is now behaving as if the statue set up is their social gathering work, he additional alleged.
Referred to as the ‘Statue of Prosperity,’ it’s the first, and the tallest bronze statue of a founding father of a metropolis as per ‘World E-book of Data’. The statue, weighing 218 tonne (98 tonnes of bronze and 120 tonnes of metal), has been put in on the Kempegowda Worldwide Airport right here. It has a sword weighing 4 tonnes.
Chief of Opposition Siddaramaiah stated the Congress authorities led by him was the one which had first deliberate to put in the statue of Kempegowda on the airport.
“Who began Kempegowda Jayanti? Who established Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Space Growth Authority? Who named the airport after Kempegowda? It was our authorities. Our authorities was the one which determined to put in a statue when the airport was named,” he stated.
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JD(S) chief H D Kumaraswamy accused the BJP authorities of utilizing Kempegowda for politics. Stating that BJP is in an phantasm that they will acquire Vokkaliga votes by putting in the statue of Kempegowda and getting it unveiled by Modi, he stated individuals would give them a befitting response.
Shivakumar and H D Kumaraswamy are from the Vokkaliga group, so are Ministers C N Ashwath Narayan and R Ashoka who had been a part of the preparations for statue-unveiling.
Kempegowda, a feudatory ruler below the erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire, based Bengaluru in 1537. Sculptor and Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Sutar designed the statue. Sutar constructed the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru.
As a precursor to the revealing, ‘mruthike’ (sacred mud) was collected from over 22,000 places throughout the State, which was blended symbolically with the mud beneath one of many 4 towers of the statue immediately. Twentyone particular automobiles collected the sacred mud from villages, cities and cities over the past two weeks.