BMC clueless about Shivaji statue

If you want to know more about Shivaji Park or the famous Shivaji statue installed there, don’t go looking for information in the official records of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

If you want to know more about Shivaji Park or the famous Shivaji statue installed there, don’t go looking for information in the official records of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A right to information query has revealed that the civic body does not have any official record of the installation of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statue at the historic Shivaji Park in Dadar.

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In response to activist Anil Galgali’s query on December 27, the BMC said that it did not know when the Shivaji statue was installed at the maidan.

Moreover, the civic body does not have sufficient historical information on the park. In its response, BMC said that the park, earlier known as Mahim Park, was proposed to be named after the Maratha king on May 10, 1927. Then corporator GB Nare had proposed the name at a BMC meeting while another sitting corporator Avantikabai Gokhalay had seconded it. The renaming had marked the tri-centenary of the king.

The maidan had recently become the epicentre of controversy after the Shiv Sena insisted on having late Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s memorial at the park.

BMC chief Sitaram Kunte did not respond to our queries.