New Delhi: A day after it came crashing down, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the statue of Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj which collapsed in Sindhudurg district was not built by the state government.
Fadnavis said the Indian Navy constructed the statue and his party’s government in the state will erect a bigger statue of the warrior king. Soon after the statue’s collapse, CM Eknath Shinde was quoted as saying by Free Press Journal, “The statue was designed and erected by the Navy.” However, he claimed on Tuesday that it collapsed due to the wind speed of 45 km per hour.
The deputy CM said those tasked with the fabrication and the installation of the statue likely ignored key local weather factors and the quality of the iron.
“The construction of the statue was not overseen by the state government but by the Navy. The individuals responsible for the fabrication and installation of the statue might have overlooked important local factors, such as high wind speed and the quality of the iron used. The statue might have become more prone to rust due to its exposure to ocean winds,” he said. Calling the opposition protest on the statue collapse “distasteful”, Fadnavis said the authorities were investigation the reason why it came down.
The opposition said the statue was built by the state Public Works Department which is under minister Ravindra Chavan of the BJP. Incidentally, Chavan is also the guardian minister of Sindhudurg and reportedly had overseen the contract for sculpting and erecting the statue.
Chavan on Monday said that the PWD officials had found rust on the statue and wrote a letter to the Navy informing them about it.
Opposition turns heat on Shinde govt
Vaibhav Naik, MLA of the Shiv Sena (UBT), protested against the “poor quality of work” at the local office of the PWD in Sindhudurg. Leader of opposition Vijay Wadettiwar (Congress) accused the government of corruption in the project. Supriya Sule of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) claimed that the statue’s contract was given to a businessman from Thane, which is the home district of CM Shinde. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, “It is unimaginable that the statue of our deity, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj would also be a subject of the BJP’s corruption.”
Meanwhile, the Navy called the collapse an “unfortunate incident” and ordered an investigation into the matter. An FIR has been lodged against the contractor and the structural consultant in connection with the statue’s collapse. The exact cause of the collapse can be ascertained through site assessment, which is underway.