The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council in its meeting on Saturday agreed to spare its land near Indira Canteen at Pumpwell Junction for installing the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by the Chhatrapathi Shivaji Maratha Association, Mangaluru.
In addition to the association, Mangaluru City South MLA D. Vedavyasa Kamath, had appealed to the civic body to permit the installation of the statue by allotting the land. According to Mr. Kamath the statue of Shivaji mounted on a horse will be installed at Pumpwell.
An agenda tabled in the council on the same said that the association has agreed to bear the entire cost of installing the statue and would maintain it. Shivaji as a king had sacrificed his life by fighting against the invaders.
The council referred two proposals – naming the road between the Collector’s Gate at Balmatta and Ambedkar Circle after Attur Sadananda Shetty and naming the Jeppu fish market junction after freedom fighter N.S. Kille – to the standing committee for town planning and Improvement to take an appropriate decision and convey the same to the council.
The corporation said that Mr. Kamath and Attur Sadananda Shetty Abhimani Balaga have appealed to the corporation to name the road after Mr. Shetty, the founder of Sri Devi Education Institutes and a promoter of sports events like kabaddi, basket ball, shuttle, badminton, karate and power lifting. He has been donating for sports events and helping sports persons. Mr. Shetty is presently the president of Sports Promoters Club, Mangaluru, Mahatma Gandhi Peace Foundation, Mangaluru, Sri Devi Education Institutes, Mangaluru offering engineering, business management, pharmacy, hotel management, nursing, physiotherapy courses and International Bunts Welfare Trust, Mangaluru. He was a former president of Buntara Yane Nadavara Matru Sangha and founder of International Bunts Welfare Trust.
Referring to late Mr. Kille the agenda said that he died at the age of 52 fighting for the freedom of the country. He was living in a rented house at Jeppu. The birth centenary of the freedom fighter was observed in 2001 and a spacious ground in Puttur has been named after him and a mahadhwara (an entrance) to the N S Kille Maidan at Puttur was inaugurated on January 1, 2022. He was also a journalist and an orator in Kannada and Tulu. Late Mr. Kille was also a talamaddale (a variant of Yakshagana) ‘arthadari’. N S Kille Foundation has appealed to name the junction at Jeppu Fish Market where Bhagini Samaj-Morgan’s Gate Road and Bharat Park Road join after the freedom fighter.
