The height of the statue, called the ‘Statue of Oneness’, will be 33 metres and it will be installed on a 16.5 metre platform
Debt-laden Madhya Pradesh is planning to go ahead with the construction of a ₹2,000 crore, 33-metre statue of Adi Shankara and an International museum at Omkareshwar, as per news reports.
Last week, the MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had addressed a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Acharya Shankar Sanskritik Ekta Nyas to discuss the project. Prominent saints and trust members including Swami Avedhashanand Giri Ji Maharaj were present in the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that the installation of the statue of Shankaracharya at Omkareshwar is a project to bring practical Vedanta to life.
"Let this world become one family, this is the aim behind it. The state government will implement the suggestions given by members of the trust and work will be done expeditiously to finalise the entire action plan," he was quoted as saying.
However, the opposition Congress has raised doubts on the project and said it will only discuss it once funds are allocated in the state budget. The party has also pointed to massive debts that the state has incurred.
This expenditure on a statute comes at a time when the state's debt is more than the total budget allocation. The budget of the state is Rs 2.41 lakh crore but the total debt is Rs 2.56 lakh crore. Per capita debt in the state is around Rs 34,000.
The Congress has demanded a white paper on debt. Former minister and senior Congress leader Jitu Patwari said, "The state already has a debt of Rs 2.56 lakh crore to repay but the Shivraj government is taking loans regularly on one or the other pretext. Now, it has decided to take a loan of Rs 48,000 crore. The state government should issue a white paper on the status of its finances."