Maya statue damaged, CM acts fast
27 July 2012 3:16 AM GMT
The members of a little known organisation the Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena damaged a marble statue of the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in the Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow, sparking strong protest from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which demanded immediate restoration of the statue.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav condemned the incident and ordered immediate restoration of the statue. 'It is a planned move to disturb peaceful atmosphere of the state. The culprits will be arrested soon,' he said in a statement.
The 10-foot-high white marble statue was installed in the Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal.
The organisation took responsibility of this act. The memorials and parks built by the previous Mayawati government were strewn with the organisation's pamphlets, which alleged corruption in the construction of these memorials. Earlier, its office bearers had told the media that they wanted the state government to remove all statues of Mayawati installed in Lucknow and Noida within 72 hours.
The security personnel posted at the park said that four to six youth reached the place on motorcycles with sledge hammers and started breaking the statue. 'Before we could react, they had broken the head of the statue. An arm of the statue was also broken,' Apurva Mishra, one of the guards, told reporters on Thursday.
The miscreants fled on motorcycle, leaving behind their sledge hammers. Senior police officials reached the spot and covered the damaged statue with a blue sheet of tarpaulin.
As the news spread, BSP workers reached the place and started raising anti-government slogans. The leader of the opposition in the state assembly Swamy Prasad Maurya said, 'This dastardly act shows the anti-dalit mentality of people who cannot withstand even the sight of a dalit leader who has been the chief minister of the state four times,' Maurya told reporters.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav condemned the incident and ordered immediate restoration of the statue. 'It is a planned move to disturb peaceful atmosphere of the state. The culprits will be arrested soon,' he said in a statement.
The 10-foot-high white marble statue was installed in the Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal.
The organisation took responsibility of this act. The memorials and parks built by the previous Mayawati government were strewn with the organisation's pamphlets, which alleged corruption in the construction of these memorials. Earlier, its office bearers had told the media that they wanted the state government to remove all statues of Mayawati installed in Lucknow and Noida within 72 hours.
The security personnel posted at the park said that four to six youth reached the place on motorcycles with sledge hammers and started breaking the statue. 'Before we could react, they had broken the head of the statue. An arm of the statue was also broken,' Apurva Mishra, one of the guards, told reporters on Thursday.
The miscreants fled on motorcycle, leaving behind their sledge hammers. Senior police officials reached the spot and covered the damaged statue with a blue sheet of tarpaulin.
As the news spread, BSP workers reached the place and started raising anti-government slogans. The leader of the opposition in the state assembly Swamy Prasad Maurya said, 'This dastardly act shows the anti-dalit mentality of people who cannot withstand even the sight of a dalit leader who has been the chief minister of the state four times,' Maurya told reporters.
Next Story
