Madhavrao Scindia’s statue removed for road widening in MP; 2 NHAI officials among 4 suspended

Bhopal: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has suspended two of its officials and issued show cause notices to others in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district after a statue of late Congress stalwart Madhavrao Scindia was shifted in an “objectionable manner”.

MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had issued directives to take strict action in this regard.

A video of the statue being shifted with the help of an earthmoving machine with a noose tied around the structure’s neck also surfaced on social media.

Madhavrao Scindia is the father of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the Congress and joined the ruling BJP in 2020.

“Two NHAI employees, team leader Rajesh Kumar Nema and assistant bridge engineer Deepak Soni, have been suspended with immediate effect. The construction company’s engineers Manoj Verma and Ashish Singh Parihar were also suspended,” Anand Prasad, Project Director, NHAI (Katni), told PTI over phone.

Show cause notices were also issued to NHAI officials, Prasad said.

In a statement, he said the Katni bypass, which is part of national highway 30, is being widened from two-lane to four-lane.

“The statue of Scindia was already established at Chaka junction and it was to be shifted to another place. However, news reports mentioned how it was shifted in an objectionable manner. Taking cognisance of these reports, action was taken,” Prasad said.