TS govt allots land for Gaddar's statue in Tellapur

The state government on Tuesday approved a proposal to install a statue of the folk singer, poet and balladeer Gaddar, who died last year. The HMDA accepted a resolution passed to this effect by the Tellapur municipality and issued orders allotting land for the statue. Principal secretary, MA&UD, M. Dana Kishore on Tuesday issued orders allotting 1,076 sq. yards in Tellapur in Ramachandrapuram mandal of Sangareddy district for the statue.

Gaddar died in August last year at the age of 74. A former Maoist ideologue, he was popular by his stage name Gaddar rather than his actual name of Gummadi Vittal



Rao. Born to a Dalit couple at Toopran of Medak in 1949, Gaddar worked for a brief period in Canara Bank in 1975 before taking to ‘revolutionary politics.’ He went underground in the 1980s and became a member of the CPI-ML (People’s War). Gaddar was the founder of the Jana Natya Mandali, the cultural outfit of the People’s War Group (PWG) of Naxalites, which later transformed into the CPI (Maoist). Gaddar was renowned as a people’s singer, highlighting people’s issues in his songs. He also acted in a few movies, including ‘Maa Bhoomi’ and ‘Rangula Kala’.