Out of total 162 statues in Vijayawada, only four have been erected legally!

Vijayawada: In what can be termed as brazen flouting of rules, according to Vijayawada Municipal Corporation ( VMC ) data, out of 166 different statues in the city, 162 have been erected without obtaining any permission neither from mandated Statue Committee nor the from the local body.

It is also pertinent to note that two Government Orders (GOs) issued on April 8, 2003, and February 18, 2013, categorically banned the installation of statues.

While 2003 GO bans the installation of any new statue on any R&B roads and mandates permission from a statue committee in an unavoidable situation to erect a statue, the 2013 GO upgrades it further following a Supreme Court order to ban the erection of statues on any public roads, pavements, sideways and other public utility places.

Out of the 166 statues in the city, 99 of them were installed before 2003 GO out of which only one statue has permission from the local civic body. However, as many as 59 statues were installed in the city after the state government banned the erection of statues without the permission of the Statue Committee.

This committee is headed by the district collector with Superintendent of Police, Superintendent Engineer (R&B), chairman or CEO of the local municipal body, Superintendent engineer (Panchayat Raj), Superintendent engineer (AP Transco) and concerned executive engineer of R&B as members.

Out of the 59 statues installed after 2003, only two statues have been erected with requisite permissions while the rest have been illegally erected. Even after the blanket ban on erecting any statues in public places as ordered by the apex court in 2013, eight statues were installed in the city out of which, only one complies with the Supreme Court judgement.

Moreover, despite the officials knowing illegal statues , they appeared to have turned a blind eye owing to the political pressures and obligations. Ironically some of these statues neither glorify those leaders nor add beauty to the city and most of the statues - especially of the local leaders were erected to the whims and fancies of politicians irrespective of political parties.

M Vasu Founder of VHEEDU, an NGO working on various safety issues said, “The political leaders should be blamed for installation of statues everywhere they find a place. Improper erection without a proper study is leading to traffic problems in many places in the city. Also, such statues often give way to hawkers leading to further encroachment of road space.”

The city planner A Lakshmana Rao said that they have not issued any permission to anyone in the last two years and all the existing statues are erected earlier. However, now the VMC does not have plans to remove any of these statues as it deals with the sentiments of people.