Gangtok, June 29: The government has intervened to end the row over the installation of the statue of Nepali poet and literary giant Adikavi Bhanu Bhakta in Geyzing, the West District headquarters.
The information and public relations department has issued a communiqué stating the government would install the statue on government land in consultation with the Paschim Sikkim Sahitya Prakashan Samiti.
The release did not mention the site where the statue would be installed but official sources said the location would be declared later.
The West District headquarters had been tense as the Gorkha Apex Committee (GAC) had been trying to install the statue of the poet in the middle of Geyzing Bazaar, which was not being permitted by Sikkim’s premier monastery, Pemayangtse, which owns the Bazaar land.
Monks and the Duchi committee (managing body) of the monastery are opposing the move saying the installation could not be permitted in the middle of the town as the area was congested.
The monastery also claims that this was not an isolated case and it had rejected similar demands for installation of a statue of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal in the past.
The GAC had decided to put up the statue forcibly and had even appealed to members of the Nepali community from all over the state to gather in Geyzing on Tuesday to install the poet’s statue in the bazaar area.
Fearing a backlash, the state government has given the district administration a free hand to control the law and order situation if there is trouble.
A high-level meeting was held at the Tashiling secretariat on June 26 to assess the situation and tackle the issue.
District collectors and senior police officials, including the director general of police, attended the meet convened by chief secretary S.W. Tenzing.
Police reinforcements have already been sent to Geyzing to maintain law and order in the district headquarters.
Last year, a statue of the poet, located close to the Bazaar area in Geyzing, was vandalised and one of the hands of the statue chopped off.
