Maharashtra government has set up a technical committee to probe reasons behind the collapse of Shivaji Maharaj statue at Malvan in coastal Konkan, an official said on Thursday. The committee will comprise engineers, IIT experts and Navy officials to fix the responsibilities, they added.
The government has also constituted a committee to build a “grand statute befitting the stature” of the warrior king, a press release issued by the Chief Minister’s office said.
The decision was taken by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who chaired a meeting with senior ministers, bureaucrats and Navy officials at his official residence Varsha in South Mumbai Wednesday night, it added.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had called a meeting of concerned people in Varsha regarding the incident. In the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Minister of Public Works and Housing Minister Ravindra Chavan, Minister of School Education Deepak Kesarkar, Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik, Additional Chief Secretary Home Iqbal Singh Chahal, Additional Chief Secretary Public Works Manisha Mhaiskar, Additional Chief Secretary Urban Development Asim Gupta, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Brijesh Singh, Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla, Vice Admiral Ajay Kochhar, Rear Admiral Manish Chadha, were present. Sculptors Ram Sutar, Vinay Wagh and Shashikant Wadke were present.
FIR registered against the contractor
An FIR has been registered against the contractor of the 35-foot statue which collapsed on Monday. The statue was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 4.
The FIR follows a complaint by the Public Works Department, which claims the statue's construction was of poor quality, and the nuts and bolts used in the structure were found to be rusted.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's instructions for a new statue
The CM directed the Public Works Department to appoint a committee of the country's best sculptors, architectural engineers, experts and naval officers to build a magnificent and magnificent statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The Chief Minister also directed to constitute a committee of renowned sculptors of Maharashtra and technical officers of JJ School of Arts, IITs, architectural engineers and naval technicians, to design and erect the statue of Chhatrapati in grand form.
The Chief Minister said that the incident is unfortunate and the sentiments of Shiva devotees are running high. On the occasion of Navy Day celebrations, the Navy installed the statue in Rajkot in good spirit and the Chief Minister said that we should be very careful to ensure that such an accident never happens again in the future. No shortage of money will be allowed for this.
Meanwhile, the incident has snowballed into a major political controversy with the opposition MVA targeting the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government and seeking Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's resignation.
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