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Hyderabad: Hyderabad
police Friday arrested a group of Telangana activists for staging
a protest over the re-installation of statues of eminent Andhra
personalities at Tank Bund, on the banks of the Hussain Sagar
Lake.
Those arrested include Telangana Jagruthi president K. Kavita,
daughter of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K.
Chandrasekhara Rao.
The atmosphere was tense near Tank Bund as protestors squatted on
the road, disrupting traffic on the key link between the twin
cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
During the million march organised by Telangana groups last year
to demand a separate state, protestors had pulled down the statues
of 12 Andhra leaders.
Authorities had begun re-installing bronze statues. The Telangana
supporters demanded that only statues of people from the region be
installed in Hyderabad, a city that Telangana supporters lay claim
to.
Acting on the demand from several Telangana groups, the government
has also installed the statue of Komram Bheem, a tribal leader
from Telangana. This has not pacified the Telangana Jagruthi,
which claims the move to install that statue was mere eyewash.
Kavita told reporters that re-installation of statues be taken up
only after consultation with intellectuals from the Telangana
region.
The statues demolished by protestors last year include that of Sir
Arthur Cotton, an irrigation engineer with the colonial
government.
Questioning the installation of Cotton's statue, Kavita said,
"What has this British engineer done for Telangana?"
Following the protests, police stepped up security for the
statues.
Authorities have re-installed five statues, which were earlier
transported to Hyderabad from Bheemavaram in West Godavari
district of Andhra region. They plan to re-install the remaining
statues in the next 10 days.
The department of culture has paid Rs.47.58 lakh to a sculptor of
Bheemavaram for making the statues.
In the 1980s, then chief minister N.T. Rama Rao installed the
statues of 33 Telugu personalities including poets, writers and
freedom fighters on Tank Bund, a key tourist spot in the city.
Telangana groups alleged that important people from their region
were ignored.
Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, has a
distinct culture. It has also followed a historical trajectory
different from Andhra and Rayalaseema, the two other regions that
comprise the state of Andhra Pradesh.
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