Maharashtra: Sambhaji Statue All Set To Be Installed At Pune’s Sambhaji Park;  District Committee’s Approval Awaited

A statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s son, Sambhaji, has been completed, and will soon be installed in Pune, reports The Indian Express.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has sought permission from its elected representatives to file for final approval with the District Statue Committee headed by the district collector.

The statue project stems from a proposal initially put forward by a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Anil Bhosale several years ago, after which it was approved by the district administration and the City Improvement Committee of the PMC in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The statue has been constructed on the basis of a picture in the book ‘Budhbhushan’, which Sambhaji himself had authored.

The work order on the statue was issued just over a year ago in December 2017 following a green light from the state government’s Art Directorate in June 2017. A month prior to the approval of the directorate, the state government issued a rule as per which any new statue would also need to be approved by a district statue committee.

The PMC has allocated Rs 30 lakh in its 2018-19 budget for the installation of the statue. It was directed by the District Statue Committee of Pune to first receive permission from the general body of the PMC and then ask for the committee’s approval.

“It is requested that the City Improvement Committee and General Body of the PMC pass a resolution for the installation of the bronze statue of Sambhaji at Sambhaji Park, so that it can be submitted with the application to the statue committee…,” said Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao.