Margao: South Goa collector Egna Cleetus on Thursday said the administration remained committed to complying with the Bombay high court’s directions on the matter pertaining to the removal of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Sada, Vasco, installed on the property of the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA).The collector said the deferral of the removal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue, which was scheduled for Thursday by the MPA, was driven entirely by a shortage of armed police force.“We don’t have an adequate number of armed forces to deploy there because 12 companies of IRB personnel have gone for election duty (outside the state). We are deferring it until they return,” Cleetus told TOI.Her statements were in consonance with those of South Goa superintendent of police Santosh Dessai, who also cited law and order concerns, saying the administration would be left with inadequate reinforcement if the need arose. Police teams have been deployed to Assam and West Bengal for election duty.The collector’s decision to defer the removal of the statue has been met with criticism from various quarters. Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar earlier warned that people would gather in large numbers to oppose the removal, saying the decision had hurt public sentiments and that the locals were strongly against it.Asked whether she anticipated a peaceful resolution of the issue, Cleetus said no proposal had been received from any stakeholder in that regard.The MPA proposed removing the statue on Thursday, in compliance with HC directions. However, a high-level meeting chaired by the collector on Wednesday decided to defer the exercise.The collector said a fresh date would be decided after due assessment of the situation.The HC had recently slammed the state for its inaction in the “clear invasion of property of a major port”, and directed it to provide the MPA all assistance, including armed security and issuing of prohibitory orders, to maintain public order, to enable it to remove the statue illegally erected.“The state has acted as a mere bystander and has in fact tacitly colluded with the perpetrators of the invasion without offering any assistance to prevent the criminal trespass,” the HC had observed.MPA had filed an application in the HC alleging forceful entry into its land and the illegal erection of a permanent statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in Feb. It had written to the police seeking registration of an FIR, and the complaint named Amonkar, among others, who criminally trespassed onto MPA property and unveiled the statue.
