Published Feb 09, 2024 | 12:08 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 09, 2024 | 12:08 PM
Parashurama theme park. (Supplied)
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered a CID investigation into the alleged irregularities in setting up the Parashurama theme park at Bailur in Udupi district during the previous government’s tenure.
The theme park row had led to a series of protests with allegations that the towering statue of Parashurama was not made of bronze as claimed by its promoters.
The park, which was the dream project of Karkala MLA and former minister V Sunil Kumar, was inaugurated in January 2023 by the then-chief minister and BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai. The “hurried” inauguration was just four months before the Assembly elections, which the Congress won.
Several Congress leaders from the Karkala constituency had made several allegations against the theme park and the statue of Parasurama which was allegedly not made of bronze as claimed.
Since September 2023, the statue has been at the centre of a volley of charges being exchanged by the BJP and the Congress, and the apparent strengthening work of its base has even led to wild rumours.
The controversy had turned into ammunition for the Congress in Karkala — especially for Uday Shetty Muniyal, who lost by a slight margin of 4,602 votes to the BJP’s V Sunil Kumar.
Meanwhile, Sunil Kumar MLA, in a statement welcomed the CID probe ordered by the government on the theme park issue. “The investigation will put a full stop on all the rumours and false charges made out by certain sections,” he said.
Kumar said he had demanded an inquiry into the matter six months ago. He wanted the government to complete the probe soon and release the remaining amount allotted for the park by the previous BJP government.
On 23 September, 2023, District In-Charge Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar, who is also the state’s minister for women and child development, visited the Parashurama Theme Park and apparently found discrepancies with the work of the statue.
The minister also assured the people that she would do everything in her capacity within the framework of the law to set things right at the theme park.
The minister had then assured the people that she would do everything in her capacity within the framework of the law to set things right at the theme park.
He thanked Udupi district-in-charge Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar for insisting on the CID investigation.
It all started in the second week of September 2023, when the local tehsildar issued an order prohibiting public entry to the theme park for two months, stating that some renovation work had to be taken up to strengthen the statue.
According to the sources in the Udupi district administration office, the head of the Parashurama statue was dismantled on 9 October 2023.
This was because the base — the leg and foot portion — was found to be weak and unable to bear the weight of the heavy bronze metal parts on top, the sources told South First.
This led to wild rumours in and around Karkala that the head of the statue had been stolen overnight. However, it was actually the District Nirmithi Kendra that dismantled the top portion of the statue.
Nevertheless, a series of protests erupted. Such was their intensity that the repair work was halted.
Congress workers started coming in groups and fulminating against the BJP for allegedly misleading and cheating people by building a substandard statue of Parashurama — believed to be the creator of Tulu Nadu — in haste just to win the election.
On 21 October 2023, workers of both the BJP and the Congress and their supporters protested at the theme park.
The sage’s statue is at the Parashurama Theme Park, a tourist destination built on the 450-foot-tall Umikal hill in Bailur village in Karkala taluk of the Udupi district.
The statue is 33 feet tall, and was made of bronze. However, Congress allegations said other materials were involved. The base foundation underneath the statue is 57 feet tall.
The statue depicts the warrior sage holding an axe in the right hand and a bow in the left hand, with the left leg raised.
The project was started at an estimated cost of ₹14.5 core in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, the Ministry of Kannada and Culture, and other related departments.
At present, the theme park has a Bhajana Mandir, a modern audio-visual art museum, a 1,000-seater amphitheatre, a viewpoint on the hill, a hallway with mural paintings of Parashurama, and a restaurant.
It took 70 workers — headed by the chief sculptor Krishna Naik from Honnavar in Tulu Nadu — seven months to build the statue in parts.
It was built at a cost of ₹2 crore and it used around 15 tonnes of copper-mixed bronze.
A clearly pained chief sculptor Krishna Naik then said about the controversy: “I am a sculpting artist out of passion, and I have studied for it. It hurts me deeply when someone — especially from the corridors of power — levels blatant and baseless allegations, like that the statue of Parashurama is made of PoP or fibre.”
(With PTI inputs)
