Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government was on Friday hurriedly restoring a life-sized statue of former chief minister Mayawati to replace the one vandalised the day before.
A replica of the marble statue of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief was found at the Sangeet Natak Academy (SNA) in Gomtinagar late Thursday and the administration got down to restoring it at 1.30 a.m. itself.
District officials said they found an exact replica of the statue broken Thursday. But the work would be completed only by Friday noon, an official told IANS.
District Magistrate Anurag Yadav said restoration work had been taken up and the sculptor, Sharawan Prajapati, had been requisitioned.
No time was wasted. Cranes were pressed into service midnight to lift the defunct statue, which was to be initially used at the Manyavar Kanshiram Eco garden on Jail Road. It was not done due to a stay by the Supreme Court.
The new statue is of the same height and weighs 750 kg. The restoration work has saved the district administration around Rs.15 lakh, an official said.
When Prajapati inspected the broken statue he told officials that it was impossible to repair it because of the extent of damage inflicted on it.
He said the statue was of very high grade marble and hence would have to be done all over again.
Detailing the events, an official said the government was informed of the dilemma following which a hunt was ordered for a replica that was luckily found a few kilometres away.
Four unidentified vandals Thursday afternoon damaged the statue, which was placed in the sprawling Ambedkar Park. It was damaged in the head, arm and neck.
Protests erupted in many parts of the state following the desecration, including in Muzaffarnagar, Jhansi and Ambedkarnagar, with BSP supporters and workers taking to the streets and raising anti-SP slogans.
BSP leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Swamy Prasad Maurya, Daddu Prasad and Nakul Dubey led the protest in Lucknow. They staged a sit-in in front of the Vidhan Sabha and demanded the immediate restoration of the statue. (IANS)