Dikhyaa Mohanty 
According to the policy finalized by the state school and public education department, only statues of people who “contributed significantly” to nation-building, the establishment of Odisha, or its language Odia can be put on the campuses of government schools. In general, the agency opted not to use public monies to establish and maintain these statutes.
The policy was implemented by the state government in response to the Orissa High Court’s directive to take a tough stance against the installation of statues in government schools. The high court ruled on a plea to have a statue of Raja Harihar Singh Mardaraj Bhramarbar Ray removed from the grounds of Rama Chandra High School in Nayagarh district’s Khandapada region removed. According to the petition, the authorities had previously put six statues on the campus, which were impeding student movement.
“Only statues of any person who has contributed significantly towards nation-building, or a person from Odisha who has significantly contributed towards the formation of the state or who has contributed significantly towards language and literature of the state can be built inside the school premises,” a circular sent out by the school department said.
“However, the dimensions of the installed statue should be convenient enough for the students to pay their homage without any hassle. The location of the installation should not obstruct the conduct of curricular/ extracurricular activities of the schools,” the directive said.
It underlined that the person making the request would have to meet all expenditures in this connection and that “no government money must be spent unless it is permissible under any existing scheme/specific direction. The applicant would also need to maintain the statue as required every year.
In April this year, municipal authorities of Angul town in Odisha had to remove two statues of the state’s first-elected chief minister Nabakrushna Choudhuri. Initially, the Angul municipality installed a life-size fibre statue of Choudhuri at the Gopabandhu Park in which he was shown as wearing a coat and a trouser, which the former Gandhian never wore in his life. After a controversy erupted, officials installed another fibre statue in which Choudhuri was shown wearing a dhoti and kurta. However, it led to another controversy as his daughter took offence to the way the dhoti was draped that led the authorities to pull it down also.
