Will demolish bus shelter if domes not removed: Mysuru MP Pratap Simha

MYSURU: Even as a controversy is raging over the Congress plan to install a 100-foot-statue of Tipu Sultan, Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha has raised objection to domes being built on bus shelters in Krishnaraja Assembly constituency in the city.

Speaking at the launch of the script of the satirical play ‘Tipu’s real dreams’ at Rangayana here on Sunday, issued a stern warning that bus shelters with domes atop them will be demolished.

Overnight, spires were added to the domes in an apparent attempt to make them look like gopuras. Picutres of KR constituency MLA A Ramadass, the Mysuru palace and the Chamundeshwari temple were also added inside.

“I have noticed the gumbaz on top of bus shelters. If there is a big dome in the middle and two smaller domes on either side, it is a mosque. The Karnataka Road Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) engineers have been told about this and I have given them 3-4 days’ time. If they do not remove the structures, I will get an earthmover and demolish them myself”, he declared.

Parliament member Pratap Simha has insisted that the domes should be removed.

Stung by the MP’s remarks, the officials fixed spires resembling the ‘kalash’ and tried to put a lid on the controversy, but Pratap Simha would have nothing of it and insisted that the domes be demolished.

The bus shelter on Mysuru-Udhagamandalam Road was erected by a contractor named Tabrez. It is still not clear whether it was done intentionally for for the sake of design. The attempts to make the domes look like a gopuras have also failed miserably.

The bus shelter on Mysuru-Ooty Road has invited criticism.

The controversy has raised its head at a time when the Tipu statue row is raging and the theatre repertoire Rangayana is also planning to stage a satirical play on the Srirangapatna ruler.