KADAPA: Days after the controversy over the proposal to instal the statue of Tipu Sultan ended, the statue of saint-poet Annamacharya was installed in the Proddatur town late Friday night, creating a flutter. However, with the district administration taking a serious note of it, municipal authorities acted swiftly and removed the statue on Saturday morning.
Around two months ago, Proddatur MLA Rachamallu Siva Prasad Reddy laid the foundation stone for the Annamacharya statue at Bollavaram on Jammalamadugu road in Proddatur. On Friday late night, the statue was installed after performing pujas.
However, local authorities were not happy in the backdrop of the unrest in the town a few weeks ago following protests of the BJP and counter protests by the ruling party, when Proddatur MLA proposed to install the statue of Tippu Sultan on Jinna Road in the town. For a few days, tension prevailed in the town. At that time, the then district collector C Harikiran issued orders not to install any statute on roads without permission as per the directions of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He also warned of taking stern action if any statue is installed.
Recently, he was transferred to East Godavari and new collector V Vijayarama Rao took over. When the footage of the newly installed Annamacharya statue went viral, District Collector Vijayarama Rao and superintendent of police KKN Anburajan took a serious note of it and pulled up Proddatur civic officials.
They reportedly questioned why blue colt police and staff monitoring CCTVs failed to notice the installation of a large statue in a public place and alert the higher ups. Following directions of the SP, Proddatur DSP Prasad Rao along with other officials rushed to the spot and removed the statue and shifted it from there in a tractor. The Statue Committee member Ramadasu was arrested.