80 days on: Status quo for Dadoji

Sena-BJP demand reinstation Konddeo statue at Lal Mahal, PMC refuses to budge

80 days on: Status quo for Dadoji

Sena-BJP demand reinstation Konddeo statue at Lal Mahal, PMC refuses to budge

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The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is no hurry to pull a plug on the Dadoji Konddeo statue issue. The ruling NCP-Congress parties in the PMC are adamant that the statue will not be reinstate at its original place in Lal Mahal, while on the other hand, the BJP, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are demanding that it be reinstalled with all respects alongside the sculptures of Chhatrapati Shivaji and his mother Jijabai.

Until yesterday, the PMC had spent Rs 4 lakh on the protection of the Konddeo statue.
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Ramesh Shelar, Chief Security Officer, PMC, said that earlier the PMC had 10 security guards for the Japanese Garden and for the statue 12 more were added. "Taking into account the salary and other relevant expenses, the cost (of security) goes up to Rs 4 lakh for about three months," he said. "The bandobast will be there till the court verdict."

Dadoji Konddev statue was removed from Lal Mahal on the midnight of December 21 and kept at the Japanese Garden, which is a part of Pu La Deshpande Udyan project of the PMC. Protest and demonstrations were made subsequently and BJP-Sena members had damaged the PMC's property at a General Body meeting on December 27, last year.

"Our aim was to remove the statue when it was formally decided in the PMC general body meeting. The statue was removed only because there was no evidence that Dadoji Konddeo was the guru of Shivaji," Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said.

He said it was the PMC's duty to guard the Dadoji statue.

The PMC and the Dattawadi police have been jointly keeping bandobast at the Japanese Garden since December 22, where the Konddeo statue has been shifted.

Police Constable Rajesh Lonkar on statue bandobast duty said: "We had joined up with State Reserve Police Force platoon till the end of last month and now eight police and 22 security guards from the PMC is being kept for day and night," he said.

Shashikala Kudle, a PMC guard on duty, said: "Fortunately, everything is fine and the garden routine has not been hampered because of the statue bandobast."

BJP's former leader of opposition in the PMC house Vikas Mathkari said that reinstating Dadoji Konddev statue at its original place is our aim and we will go through proper legal channel.

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