Promised marble, delivered plastic: How a statue in Madhya Pradesh became monument to administrative failure

According to documents released by the Khargone Municipal Corporation, one of the requirements was that “the statue is made of stone/marble”.

Khargone Collector Bhavya Mittal told The Indian Express, “The municipal corporation proceeded without much care in this matter and rushed to make the statue as they had to meet the deadline. The statue was supposed to be made from metal, stone, or other natural material usually used to make statues of gods.”

She said that the contractor, when questioned, “revealed this was the first time they had got such an assignment, and claimed they were unable to deliver on the deadline while laying the blame on a second party who made the statue for them.”

Officials of the company that won the contract, Pinak Trading Company, Khargone, did not respond to calls and messages seeking their comment.

Khargone Municipal Corporation president Chaya Joshi said the contractor has been blacklisted and notices have been issued to officials who oversaw the project. “We could not catch the mistake as the statue arrived the night before the event. We are checking for lapses in inspection and other issues. We have not paid the contractors,” Joshi said.

The reporting officer who oversaw the project, Jitendra Meda, said the contractor had hired someone else to finish the statue, but delivered a structure of “poor quality”. “After the statue was inaugurated, I noticed that it was of poor quality and issued a notice on November 18. The contractor doesn’t make statues and outsources the work to another party.”

After it came to their notice that the statue was of poor quality, the corporation was set to chair a new meeting to decide on rectifying the issue. However, a senior official in the Khargone administration said, “They sat on the issue before complaints were made in the public forum. They must have seen the cost overrun on the replacement and would have delayed it.”

How it started

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had on December 12, 2022, renamed Bistan Naka Tiraha in Khargone town after Tatya Mama Bhil. On September 24, 2025, at a meeting of the Khargone Municipal Council, administrative and financial approval of Rs 40 lakh was granted for the beautification work of Tatya Mama Tiraha. On November 7, 2025, the Chief Municipal Officer of Khargone communicated that NOCs were obtained by the departments concerned.

As per the checklist released by the Khargone Municipal Corporation, a statue of Tatya Mama Bhil at the location would have “a height of 108 inches, a width of 48 inches, and a weight of approximately 300 kilograms”. The documents specified, “The statue is made of stone/marble.” The proposed date for installation and public unveiling of the statue was to be November 15, 2025.

The documents were signed by the Sub-Engineer, Assistant Engineer, and Chief Municipal Officer of Khargone Municipal Council.

The procurement process began on October 27, 2025. The tender specified the requirement for a “marble Tantia Mama statue” measuring “7.5 ft”.

Among the three bids received, the lowest rate was quoted by Pinak Trading Company, Khargone, at Rs 9,90,000, following which it won the bid. The company has now been blacklisted by the municipal corporation.

Khargone District Collector Bhavya Mittal, in an order dated November 12, 2025, granted conditional permission for the installation of the statue at the junction, subject to the conditions that the “statue shall be made of solid stone or metal”.

NOCs were obtained from the traffic police, the Public Works Department, the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, the Town and Country Planning Department, and other agencies.

For Madhya Pradesh’s ruling BJP, November 15, the day on which the administration rushed to unveil the statue, is politically significant. It is marked as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas (Tribal Pride Day), and Madhya Pradesh has one of the largest tribal populations in India, with Scheduled Tribes forming over one-fifth of the electorate and decisively influencing outcomes in dozens of Assembly seats. For the BJP, the day, which commemorates the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, serves as a symbolic corrective to what it argues has been decades of political neglect of tribal icons by the Congress.