The Telugu Desam Party has come out with an interesting detail to substantiate its criticism of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for not including Telugu Talli statue as well as Maa Telugu Talliki song in the just-concluded World Telugu Conference.
TDP politburo member Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said the design for Telugu Talli statue was an initiative of ex-IAS officer Kasipandyan, Collector of Mahbubnagar district, in 1975.
A Tamilian by origin, Kasipandyan was inspired by Telugu language which he perfected during his stint in the State and took the initiative of making a Telugu Talli statue.
Accordingly, a sculptor, Shankar, was entrusted with the task and the statue was installed in the collectorate in Mahbubnagar, the Telangana heartland.
Former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao, who was inspired by the statue, adopted the same model and it was then installed at Tank Bund a decade later.
“There were several media reports appreciating Kasipandyan’s initiative those days and the statue is still present in Mahbubnagar district collectorate,” he said.
Recalling the Chief Minister’s claims about being an avid reader, he wondered how he could not get information about such a major initiative.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Reddy said the just-concluded conference ended without major resolutions for promotion of Telugu and delegates were upset with the developments.
The government should now come up with specific action plan to promote use of Telugu in daily life like making it compulsory in primary school and ensuring the presence of teachers specialising in Telugu in all the educational institutions, he suggested.
