Miscreants vandalise statues of eminent personalities

Siliguri: The newly-installed statues of 10 eminent personalities of Indian history at Pati Colony area of Ward 47 in Siliguri were targeted by miscreants. Some miscreants allegedly vandalised the statues and attempted to deface them with bricks and stones. On Wednesday, Gautam Deb, Mayor of Siliguri, visited the area and assured of increasing security in the area. An FIR has been lodged by the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) at the Pradhan

Nagar Police Station.

“I strongly condemn the incident. We have already lodged a complaint with the police. The culprits should be put behind bars. However, we are planning to install more CCTV cameras in the areas where we have placed statues of eminent personalities in the city,” said Gautam Deb. According to sources, the incident happened late on Monday night and local residents discovered the damage on Tuesday morning and promptly informed Ward Councillor Amar Ananda Das.

He also visited the site to evaluate the situation. About a few months ago, statues of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Khudiram Bose, Master Da Surja Sen, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Panchanan Verma and Bhanu Bhakta were placed by the ward councillor in a row.

The area was beautified. Statues of Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar were damaged in the incident. Amar Ananda Das said: “We have installed the statues showing great respect to these iconic personalities so that the young generation can learn about them.

This incident was unexpected. Strict action should be taken against this.” According to locals, some youths who are substance abusers could be behind this. The police have started a probe.