To erect statue, nod from minorities or locals mandatory

MAHARASHTRA

THE MAHARASHTRA government has now made it mandatory for those planning to erect a statue of national or local icons and leaders to submit a clearance from the police, stating clearly that any minority community living in the locality or the local residents are not opposed to the move.

The precondition, imposed by the general administration department headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, comes four months after an incident involving pulling down of a statue of Marathi poet and playwright Ram Ganesh Gadkari at Pune's Shambhaji Udyan. On January 3, workers of the Shambhaji Brigade had pulled down the statue, claiming that Gadkari's books painted Shambhaji Maharaj in poor light.

"A no-objection letter from the police specifying that minority communities and local citizens are not opposed to the statue would have to be attached along with the application for erecting the statue," the government's new policy for erection of statues in Maharashtra states.

The policy guidelines released Tuesday also state that the local police will have to ascertain that installation of any statue will not lead to escalation of local or communal tension.

The guidelines also prohibit installation of the statue of a particular icon or a leader within 2 km of an existing statue of the same person. Besides the police NOC, those erecting the statue would also require a separate NOC from the urban or the rural local body stating that the project won't impact traffic movement and local aesthetics.

Fadnavis has decentralised powers to approve installation of statues at the collector level.