Bhubaneswar: Protesting against state government’s decision to relocate the iconic ‘warrior-horse’ statue from Master Canteen square to Raj Bhavan square in Bhubaneswar, Congress leaders Friday staged a demonstration in front of the statue.
Senior Congress leader and Jatni MLA Suresh Routray and other leaders said the party will not allow shifting of the iconic statue which stands as a testimony to the valour as well as architectural skill of Odia people.
“The statue has been synonymous with the state government. It has already been accepted as a symbol of the state government. Its shifting will be opposed vehemently,” said Jatni MLA.
The statue, chiseled out by late Padma Vibhushan awardee Raghunath Mohapatra and installed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) in 1988, is to be shifted to pave the way for Smart Janpath project.
For the project, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) had proposed the relocation of the statue, fearing it may lose its visibility once the multi-modal hub under the Smart Janpath project comes up in the Master Canteen.
PNN