Pune Municipal Corporation blames the premier joint training institute of Indian defence forces for delay in the project.
Sustained efforts over several years to install a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the great Maratha ruler and military strategist, at the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla have not borne fruit.
While the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration is pointing fingers at the NDA authorities for delaying the matter, various civic leaders have given a clean chit to the NDA and have blamed the civic administration for the delay.
The absence of a Shivaji statue at this premier defence institute is especially conspicuous as the NDA already has several statues of great personalities from the Indian history such as Maharana Pratap, Rani Laxmibai and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, besides statues of gallantry award winners of honours such as Paramveer Chakra and Ashoka Chakra. These statues were presented to the NDA by various state governments of the country.
As per the defence ministry’s policy, the NDA does not install statues on its own but accepts statues gifted by various state governments.
It was while serving at the NDA that Lt Col (retd) BC Joglekar noticed the absence of a Shivaji statue and took the lead in installing one after retirement from the army in 2004. Failing to get any response from the Maharashtra government, Joglekar approached the PMC, which promised to sponsor the statue.
Former mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale and former standing committee chairman Sham Deshpande took the lead in the matter.
When asked about the delay, PMC’s deputy city engineer (garden department), Aniruddha Pawaskar, who is in charge of this project, said, “The NDA has allotted a plot for erecting the statue. But it has asked for lifetime maintenance for the garden. As a compromise, the PMC’s party leaders decided to ask the NDA to erect the pedestal for the statue and create a small garden around it which would be paid for by the PMC.”
Pawaskar said that the matter was being followed by the PMC with the Defence Estates department and it was just 10 days ago that the civic body finally received an estimate of Rs4.5 crore from the NDA. When contacted Lt Col Bhagirath Dey, public relations officer of the NDA, confirmed that the NDA had earmarked land for Shivaji Maharaj’s statue.
He said that the NDA’s administration department had sent a detailed cost estimate of the infrastructure involved in setting up the statue to the PMC.
“The ball is in PMC’s court now. Once the PMC approves the cost and we receive their confirmation, we will secure the formal go-ahead from the Ministry of Defence,” he said.
Pawaskar said that the PMC wrote three letters to the NDA to expedite the matter. “Besides this, we also visited the Defence Estates department to obtain the estimate. The project has been delayed because of the delay in submitting the estimate,” he said.
The senior PMC official said that there was no budgetary provision for the project.
“Either the PMC will need to transfer the money from different heads in the annual budget to this project or the garden department will have to seek an allocation of Rs4.5 crore for this project in the next annual budget.” The PMC on its part appointed famous sculptor Nilesh Khedkar to prepare the statue. Khedkar told DNA that the statue is almost ready. “The statue of Shivaji Maharaj seated on a horse is 12.5-feet high. The PMC has paid me just Rs8 lakh so far and Rs20 lakh is pending,” he said.
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