Hyderabad: A new bronze statue of Lord Basaveshwara, the famed 12th century Hindu social reformer, philosopher, statesman and poet, will be installed on the Tank Bank.
The 15-feet high statue of Lord Basaveshwara on horseback costing around Rs 64 lakh will be installed near Rotary Park, adjacent to the statue of Swami Vivekananda.
Hyderabad mayor Bonthu Ramamohan, Zaheerabad MP B.B. Patil, HMDA commissioner Chiranjeevulu, Telangana Veerashaiva Lingayat Federation president and Narayankhed market committee chairman B. Hanumanthu, TRSVs leader Subhapradh Patel, S. Satish and other members of federation inspected the site on Wednesday and approved the statue.
“The statue will be installed near the Rotary Park,” the mayor said. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had promised Rs 5 crore, one acre land and installation of a statue on Tank Bund during Basaveshwara Jayanti at the time of Narayankhed byelections.
The government also issued a GO in this regard, following which ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao asked the mayor to finalise the site on Ugadi day.
Former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao had installed 33 statues of prominent Telugu personalities on the picturesque Tank Bund.
During Telangana movement, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had pinpointed 23 objectionable statues and issued a fiat that they be removed. During the peak of the agitation, a dozen statues were damaged, including four that were dumped into Hussainsagar never to be retrieved. However, they were subsequently replaced.
After formation of Telangana, statues of Adilabad tribal leader Komram Bheem and senior Congress leader G. Venkatswamy were installed on the Tank Bund.
