Telugu scholars, poets, offer homage to statues on Tank Bund

Several Telugu scholars, poets and political leaders today took out a 'padayatra' and offered homage to the statues of Telugu luminaries on the Tank Bund here, as a mark of protest over the vandalism during a pro-Telangana march last week.

"We offered tribute to all the statues and sought apologies for the vandalism," Parakala Prabhakar, a former leader of Praja Rajyam, said.

"Even if ten lakh bulls were to march down the Tank Bund road, they would not cause any harm to the statues of these great personalities," Jonnavithula Ramalingeswara Rao, a poet and film lyricist, said.

"We have nothing to do with separate statehood demand. They can obtain statehood, we have nothing to do with it. Our concern is the vandalism of the statues of these legends who are a property of the nation," Garikapati Narasimha Rao, a Telugu poet and scholar, said.

Slamming the destruction of the statues, Congress MLA from Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, P Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, said he too supported the Telangana cause but not the desecration of the statues.

As many as 16 of the 33 statues, installed on the Tank Bund during late NT Rama Rao's regime, were vandalised allegedly by Telangana supporters during the 'million march to Hyderabad' called by pro-Telangana groups last week.