Mayor S. Bhagyavathi and a few councillors of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) have expressed resentment over the scheduling of the unveiling of the statue of B.R. Ambedkar at Town Hall on Sunday. They questioned the propriety of holding the function “in a hurried manner”.
Besides, most of the councillors, including a few Congress members, have expressed displeasure with councillors not being invited for the inauguration.
Ms. Bhagyavathi said officials of the Public Works Department had sidelined the MCC and did not invite the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and councillors. She said she has been sidelined in a few programmes held recently and noted that she was not offered a seat at the inauguration of the Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa statue at Ramakrishnanagar a few days ago. Purushotham and M.J. Ravi Kumar, both former Mayors, were among the others who expressed disappointment with members of the elected body not being invited for the unveiling.
The statue, supposed to be unique as it is made of marble, was installed at a cost of ₹5.97 lakh. It is enclosed within a huge dome and is said to be the first marble statue of Dr. Ambedkar in the country.
Manjunath, executive engineer of the PWD, said the cost of the statue was ₹3.72 lakh, while the gold plating and the dome cost ₹1.62 lakh. The raw material was procured from Rajasthan, he said.
When his attention drawn to the grouse of the Mayor and the councillors, Mr. Manjunath said the district administration, at the behest of the district in-charge Minister, had decided to unveil the statue on March 25 as the CM was in town. He said the MCC Commissioner was informed of the decision and requested to invite the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and councillors. He added that he was aware that the Commissioner had invited the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and councillors via phone.
