YSR Congress party MP from Machilipatnam parliamentary constituency V Balashowry on Monday made a representation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting that a statue of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy be installed on the Parliament premises.
Balashowry said YSR was the most popular leader of his times and his welfare schemes made a mark on Andhra Pradesh.
A four-time MP from Kadapa and five-time MLA from Pulivendula, YSR served as the chief minister of AP twice, he reminded.
“During his tenure between 2004 and 2009, YSR had implemented several schemes such as free power supply to agriculture sector, pavala vaddi(three per cent interest on crop loans), fee reimbursement for the poor students and Arogya Sri,” he pointed out.
Besides, YSR had taken up several developmental programmes like Jala Yagnam, construction of Outer Ring Road, Hyderabad International Airport, Hyderabad Metro Rail project etc.
“He will remain in the hearts of the people forever and a statue for him in Parliament will be a real tribute for him,” Balashowy said.
Sources, however, said the installation of YSR statue in Parliament is unlikely as a high-level committee of Parliament had decided nine years ago that there would be no further installation of statues in the premises because it was already over-crowded with statues.
There are in all more than 50 statues of national and regional leaders in Parliament.
The last statue that was permitted to be installed in Parliament was that of Telugu Desam Party founder and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao. It was unveiled in May 2013.
Unless a special permission is granted by the Narendra Modi government, the statue of YSR cannot be installed in Parliament, sources said.
