Favour to Vijayawada contract alleged

HYDERABAD: The decision of the state government to reinstall a dozen statues of Telugu icons on the Tank Bund that were either vandalised, uprooted or broken and thrown into Hussain Sagar during the Million March on March 10 is snowballing into a controversy.Some qualified sculptors have asked the government to either scrap the  tender or keep it in abeyance on the ground that the work was allotted only to one single bidder, B Shiva Varaprasad of Sri Sai Baba Mega Shilpashala of Vijayawada. ``Varaprasad is not a sculptor but a clerk who went on to become a contractor,’’ they further alleged.While the Telangana Jagruthi and Telangana Political JAC renewed their threat stating that no statue should be installed on the Tank Bund till a separate state is created, other separatist organisations have threatened to demolish the new statues if the government did not install the statues of Telangana luminaries such as Komaram Bheem and Chakali Ailamma there.“If the government wants to re-install the statues, then the statues of eminent Telangana writers and leaders who fought for the freedom of the region should also be installed,” Jagruthi leader Kavitha said.Officials of the department of culture made it clear that only those 12 statues that were uprooted during the Million March would be reinstalled in about three months’ time, and no statues of Telangana luminaries except Komaram Bheem will be installed.Sculptors Federation members Venkateshwar Rao, Arun Prasad,  Raj Kumar Vodiyar, PY Raju and Mayachary asked the government to withdraw the work order given to Varaprasad since he was not a qualified sculptor. “The work order given to him is an insult to artists and artisans. He does not know how to mould statues. He is a  clerk-turned-contractor.’’They challenged the government to call qualified sculptors and the said contractor to a common platform and test their calibre by asking them to prepare the bust of any a luminary selected by the government. ``If Varaprasad proves that he is a sculptor, we are ready to give a prize money of Rs 5 lakh to him,’’ they said with sarcasm.Instead of giving all the work to one contractor, it should have been distributed equally among qualified sculptors as done by former chief minister the late NT Ram Rao. “There is something fishy in the allotment of work to the contractor,’’ Venkateshwar Rao alleged.