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A giant Gandhi statue near Musi river isn’t what Hyderabad needs now

What is the need to waste about Rs 5,800 crore on a statue? Maybe consider opening the gates of the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar from time to time and keep the water flowing.

If there is any urban project in Hyderabad that has been a waste of time and money, it is the Musi river’s development. Despite several announcements over the years by different governments promising to clean it up, tangible changes could hardly be seen in the riverbed since 2012. 

I have nothing against the current Congress government, or the BRS before that. This is a strict rant about the Musi river now, because the incumbent government wants to turn it into a massive urban development project and is willing to cause discomfort for a few thousand people for its vanity by adding a massive statue of MK Gandhi for reasons best known to it. 

The Gandhi Sarovar Project is supposed to be a 123-150 feet statue of Gandhi as a tribute. The project is centred at Bapu Ghat in Langar Houz—the historic confluence of the Musa and Esa streams where a portion of Gandhi’s ashes were immersed in 1948.

Understandably, Congress wants to push forward its ideas to oppose the BJP, but evicting people from their homes, from a massive building nonetheless, is certainly not the way. But here’s some background for context.

The Musi river gets its name from the two streams, Moosa and Eesi, which converge near the Golconda fort. The river has existed for centuries before Hyderabad was founded in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fourth king of the Golconda dynasty (1518-1687). It is why Hyderabad is where it is. Quli chose the Charminar and the Old City area (which was the new city then) to move........

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