Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Sep 4 (IANS): In an acidic attack on the MahaYuti government, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar said that the responsibility of creating the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue was given to an inexperienced sculptor and hence it collapsed in barely eight months, here on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media, Pawar said that the sculptor -- Jaydeep Apte, of Kalyan town in Thane -- was unable to handle such a major assignment due to his limited skills, and that resulted in the monumental tragedy that has pained the people of Maharashtra.

“It does not appear that Apte had any expertise to make such a huge statue… The state government’s contention that it crashed due to bad weather conditions holds no water… The whole thing seems to reek of corruption,” said Pawar sternly.

Hitting back at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s criticism of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders, the NCP (SP) supremo questioned whether it was his (the CM’s) culture to damage the state’s pride by handing over such a prestigious project to an inept person (Apte).

Pawar pointed out how so many other massive figurines of the Chhatrapati, or even other leaders, are standing tall for many decades in Mumbai and other parts of the state, like statues at Gateway of India or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park in Dadar West.

The statue crash row rages nine days after it suddenly collapsed in a heap at the Rajkot Fort at Malvan in Sindhudurg, shocking the people of the state, as the MahaYuti of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party attempted a damage-control exercise.

Worried over its fallout on the upcoming state Assembly elections, BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and CM Shinde, plus Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tendered separate apologies.

However, the MVA of Congress-NCP (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT) remains dissatisfied and has launched a state-wide agitation from September 1, demanding the resignation of the MahaYuti regime, alleging huge corruption in the statue project.

Meanwhile, the state government on Monday transferred the Sindhudurg Collector and downgraded the scenic coastal district’s top post to a non-IAS junior administrative level category, surprising political and government circles.

The Malvan Police have launched investigations, Apte is still absconding with a Look Out Circular issues against him but the structural consultant Chetan Patil of Kolhapur has been nabbed.