Protests greet world’s biggest statue in remote corner of India

SARDAR SAROVAR DAM, India: Angry local communities have warned India´s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stay away from the inauguration on Wednesday of the world´s biggest statue, a 182 metre (600 feet) high tribute to an independence hero. The Statue of Unity, which is twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, has been built in a remote corner of Gujarat state as a flagship project of conservative leader Modi who is to open it on Wednesday. But people living around the 29.9 billion rupee ($400 million) statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who played a key role in unifying India after its independence in 1947, want more compensation for damage to the environment. Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani in a town near the statue were torn down or had the faces blackened at the weekend. The chiefs of 22 surrounding villages have warned Modi to stay away from the inauguration of the mammoth figure, which will push the 128 metre high Spring Temple Buddha in China into second place.