Two controversial domes built over a bus stop in Mysuru, Karnataka, disappeared overnight on Sunday. After BJP MP Pratap Simha warned to take immediate action if the domes were not taken down, the structures were removed. Simha had declared that the two domed structures built atop the bus station, which surround a larger central dome, resembled mosques and had set a deadline for removing them.
Now the two smaller domes have been removed, and only the bigger dome at the centre remains. After the domes disappeared from the bus stop, Pratam Simha took to Twitter and wrote, “If there is a big dome in the middle and two smaller domes next to each other, it is a mosque. Thanks to the District Collector who asked for time and kept his word and to Ramdas ji who understood the reality and bowed to the referendum.”
ಮಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲೊಂದು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗುಂಬಜ್, ಅಕ್ಕಪಕ್ಕ ಎರಡು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಗುಂಬಜ್ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಅದು ಮಸೀದೀನೇ, ಅದನ್ನು ತೆರವು ಮಾಡಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ ಎಂದಿದ್ದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅದರಂತೆ ನಡೆದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಕಾಲಾವಕಾಶ ಕೇಳಿ ಮಾತಿನಂತೆ ನಡೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಜಿಲ್ಲಾಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹಾಗು ವಾಸ್ತವ ಅರಿತು ಜನಾಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಕ್ಕೆ ತಲೆಬಾಗಿದ ರಾಮದಾಸ್ ಜಿ ಅವರಿಗೂ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು. pic.twitter.com/9b1wPLULJ4
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) November 27, 2022
Earlier on 15 November, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) served a notice on the Mysore city corporation, requesting that the dome-structured bus shelter in Karnataka’s Mysore be removed. The NHAI allowed the local council one week to remove the structures.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) issues notice to Mysore City Corporation for the removal of a “structure constructed to achieve controversial kind of issues” at a bus stop in Mysuru, Karnataka; grants them one-week time for the removal of the structure. pic.twitter.com/2LqYdqsffn
— ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2022
In a letter to MCC and Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) dated November 15, the NHAI project director stated, “Since it has developed communal issues as per the National Highway Administration Act this may be treated as notice otherwise as per the Highway Administration Act 2003, action will be initiated.”
Since Simha threatened to demolish the dome-like structure outside JSS College on Ooty Road on Monday, the bus stop has been a source of friction between Simha, the Mysuru-Kodagu MP, and BJP MLA S A Ramdas. According to Ramdas, the bus stop was not built following religious lines but was modelled after the Mysuru Palace and is situated in the Krishnaraja Vishan Sabha constituency, which is one of his electoral boundaries.
On Thursday, Simha stuck to his stance while MLA Ramdas said he was being singled out and pressured into quitting the party. He continued by saying that he had apprised Basavaraj Bommai, the chief minister, on the matter. Ramdas held a meeting with CM Bommai, according to CM Bommai, who also said he had asked an expert committee to look into the situation.
