Telugu Desam party today expressed strong resentment at Telangana government’s decision to locate the Dr Ambedkar Smritvanam adjacent to NTR gardens in Hyderabad. Party spokesperson and MLC Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu suspected motive to marginalize the NTR memorial in the move.

This was the first reaction from the TDP after Telangana minister’s committee headed by deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari took the decision three days ago to locate the Amdedkar memorial at NTR memorial.

“We welcome the decision of the Telangana government to unveil a 125 ft statue of Ambedkar in Hyderabad. But, we object to location of the statue atNTR memorial,” he said.

“NTR memorial has become a land mark in Hyderabad. Setting up of a huge statue adjoining the garden will diminish the importance of the gardens. Once you start the construction of the statue and development of the Ambedkar Smritivanam, the NTR garden and its charm would get disturbed. It is painful that the government has not given though to the damage being done to the famous memorial of great Telugu actor and political leaders,” Muddu said.

It may be recalled that Telangana government is planning to erect a massive statue of 125 feet for Ambedkar as part of the celebration of 125 birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb. According to the plan, the government will develop a garden in memory of Ambedkar on 36 acres. And chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will perform ground-breaking ceremony for the Ambedkar memorial project on Thursday.

The move is seen by some as an attempt to marginalize the NTR memorial in Hyderabad. Since it is not possible to directly remove the NTR Ghat and gardens, the Telangana government chose the place to build a memorial for Ambedkar. As it is meant for Amdedkar, nobody dare question this. Any attempt to replace NTR gardens by any personality’s memory other than Ambedkar would attract serious refutation from all sections of the people. The TS government appears to have chosen Dr Ambedkar’s statue for the purpose.