The family members of Chhattisgarh policeman Nand Lal Kosle,who was killed in a Maoist ambush around two years ago,couldnt believe their eyes when they saw his bust that the state government had commissioned to honour him. It looked like the statue of a different person. It even had a moustache,while my brother did not have one. There could not be a worst way to insult my brother and us, Kosles brother Panchram said. Kosle of Bundeli village in Korba district was killed in Bijapur on October 30,2010. Soon after,state Home Minister Nanki Ram Kanwar,who also belongs to Korba,visited the family and promised to put the policemans statue at a prominent location in the town. The family said Kanwar even took a photograph of Kosle and engaged a local sculptor to build the bust. Days before Kanwar was scheduled to unveil it,the family found that it hardly resembled Kosle. They rejected it right then and there,and carried the bust to Kanwars Korba home to return it. But the minister was out of station and his relatives refused to accept it,said villagers,who accompanied the family to the ministers house. Kanwar,in the mean time,promised to get another statue built,the family claimed. But he did not do anything for 18 months,and so the family got a life-size statue built on their own,the villagers said. Finally,Kanwar unveiled the new statue at an official function last Saturday. The family has now alleged that the minister spent just Rs 10,000 on the new statue that costs over Rs 1 lakh. I paid from my pocket to get a statue built for them. It wasnt government money. Unko pasand nahi aayi to kya Karen. Humne half-size banvayi thi,unhone full-size (What can I do if they didnt like it. I went for a bust,they made a full statue). After all,its their choice, Kanwar said. The bust is gathering dust in Kosles home. It is of no use for us,but we cannot throw it away, Panchram said. Kanwar offered a solution. It can be erected at any other spot in the district. Do jagah murtiyan ho jayengi (there will be statues in two places), he said.
