VIJAYAWADA: History lovers and patriots who visited Bapu Museum on Thursday to pay homage to Pingali Venkayya, the designer of the Tricolour, on his 142nd birth anniversary were in for a rude shock when they saw that his statue had been replaced with his photograph.
The bust was knocked down by a branch two months ago, but the State government is yet to restore it. “I garland Pingali Venkayya’s statue here on his birth anniversaries. I was shocked to see a photograph instead of the bust. The statue was here when I visited three months ago,” said Mallikharjuna Sarma, a sexagenarian.
The broken bust is locked in a room on the museum premises. “We tried to repair it, but sculptors ruled out the possibility. We tried to get a new bronze statue made, but we were unable to find sculptors who could carve it,” archaeology Department assistant director M Swamy Naik told TNIE. The officials have written to the government stating that the proposed bronze statue would cost about `3 lakh. “But before we could get a reply, we had to celebrate the birth anniversary,” an official said.