Bhopal, Nov 16 (IANS): Four engineers of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) were suspended for relocating the statue of former Union Minister Madhavrao Scindia, the (late) father of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, in a “disrespectful” manner in Madhya Pradesh's Katni.
NHAI engineers were punished for lifting the half-size statue of Congress leader (late) Madhavrao Scindia located at Katni bypass through a JCB machine. A video surfaced on social media, showing the statue was lifted with a rope around the neck portion.
The relocation was done for the construction of a bridge at the Chaka intersection at Katni bypass on NH-30, and the statue installed there needed to be shifted to another place. The area where the statue was installed, is also being widened, which requires extra space.
There was no objection to the shifting of the statue, but the manner in which, it was lifted, resulted in a political storm in Madhya Pradesh. State Congress objected to it, saying the statue of the former Union Minister, who served for the country until his last breath, was lifted in a "disrespectful" manner.
State BJP also expressed anguish over this incident. "This type of insensitivity towards the statue of the great man who contributed to the building of the nation and society is unacceptable," MP BJP chief V. D. Sharma said.
Sharma, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Khajuraho, and the Katni Assembly segment is part of this Lok Sabha constituency, had also written to the NHAI and demanded immediate action against those responsible officials associated with the project.
Subsequently, NHAI took action in the matter and suspended four engineers associated with projects - Manoj Verma, Ashish Singh Parihar, Rajesh Kumar Nema and Deepak Soni from service after finding them guilty, as MP BJP said in a statement on Saturday.
BJP media in-charge Ashish Agrawal told IANS that they have asked Katni district administration and NHAI officials to relocate Scindia's statue to the best place in a respectful manner.
Congress leader and former Union Minister Madhavrao Scindia died in a plane crash in 2001. His son Jyotiraditya Scindia, who started his political career with the Congress, shifted to BJP in 2020.