Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday performed ground breaking ceremony at the NTR Park for the installation of country’s tallest statue of BR Ambedkar, the architect of India’s constitution, here on Thursday.
The ceremony was held coinciding with the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar. The State Government was planning to complete the `25 crore work for the 150 feet tall statue by the next year to mark the 125th anniversary of the Dalit icon. The statue will be part of Ambedkar Square which will be built at the Party Zone of the NTR Park in the heart of the city.
Speaking on the occasion K Chandrasekhar Rao said that his movement for separate Telangana was inspired by Ambedkar’s fight for justice for the weaker states. “We achieved Telangana because of Dr Ambedkar. For this the Telangana society will remain indebted to him”, he said. Earlier he also garlanded Dr Ambedkar’s existing statue at the Tank Bund. “Telangana state became possible because of the constitution he framed. If Ambedkar was not there we would have never been able to achieve Telangana State”, he said.
KCR reiterated his Government’s commitment to the welfare of all the weaker sections specially the scheduled castes.
Union Minister of State Bandaru Dattareya of the BJP, and several State Ministers including deputy Chief Ministers Mahmood Ali and Kadiam Srihari were also present at the foundation laying ceremony for the statue.
However the ceremony was not without a share of controversy as the main opposition Telugu Desam party objected to the choice of location of installation of Dr Ambedkar’s statue. The party said that the park was named after its founder and former Chief Minister N T Rama Rao and the state government could have found another suitable place for the statue.
The objection came from a senior TDP leader Gali Muddukrishnamma Naidu.
While Chief Minister KCR’s move was being seen clearly an attempt to woo the scheduled castes the opposition TDP was quick to point out that KCR had not included any representative of Madiga sub caste of Dalits in his cabinet. TDP leader M Narasimhlu staged a march from Dr Ambedkar’s statue to NTR Ghat before sitting on a day long fast demanding representation to Madigas in the cabinet.
TRS government in Telangana and the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh were also in the race to be first to install the tallest statue of Dr Ambedkar. Though AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was first to announce the idea of the tallest state of the Dalit icon, KCR overtook him and became the first to launch the work on the project. 125 feet long statue will change the skyline of the city around the picturesaue Hussain Sagar lake which was so far dominated by 58 feet tall statue of Buddha in the middle of the historic lake.