The marble statue, a gift from Myanmar to Mumbai, was held up for a fortnight at Kandla port.
The magnificent marble statue of Lord Buddha shipped as a gift by Myanmar to Mumbai, which had been lying at the Kandla port for almost a fortnight, is now finally on its way to its destination in Mumbai. The statue, carved out of a single piece of stone, weighs 60 tonnes.
“We fail to understand why Kandla customs took so much time in clearing it when we had submitted clear evidence from the Myanmar government and that country’s main chamber of commerce that it was a gift item and was not an antique piece.
The white marble idol of Buddha after being unloaded on a Kandla jetty had turned black and messy on account of particles of imported coal and other chemicals. This had angered people of Gandhidham who got it cleaned before loading it on a truck-trailor for its road journey to Mumbai,” Vijay Shah of Vipassana Centre at Bada village in Kutch and Gandhidham-based Buddha lover Hitesh Ranawala told DNA on Wednesday.
The duo said that immediately after its unloading from the ship, MV Seaways Valor, on Kandla jetty, the customs people first raised a question of the dimension of the statue being different from the one mentioned in the bill. Then, they demanded letters from the exporting agencies in Burma which were immediately submitted on April 23.
The ministry of religion letter clearly mentioned its dimensions and that it was a gift by the International Dhamma Giri Vipassana Association to Vipassana Research Institute.
The second letter of April 23 from Myanmar India Business Chamber (MIBC) issued a certificate of its Myanmar origin giving full details, including its Myanmar port of export being Yangon which confirmed the details given in the letter of government of Myanmar. Still not satisfied with it, the Kandla customs called officials of department of archaeology from outside the state to certify that it was not an antique peace.
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