Madras High Court today issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government on a petition seeking to relocate a statue of late actor Sivaji Ganesan on the eastern side of a road abutting Marina beach.
Justice M Duraiswamy issued the notice, returnable in four weeks and made it clear that the pendency of the petition seeking to relocate the statue shall not stand in the way ofthe government removing it.
The judge, before whom the petition by K Chandrasekaran, president of the late actor's fans welfare association, came up, referred to its January 23 2014 order directing the state government to take a decision on removing the statue as expeditiously as possible.
The direction was issued following inquiries, which underscored that the statue was obstructing motorists' view.
Subsequently,former Chief Minister,the late Jayalalithaa had announced in the assembly on August 25, 2015 that a memorial would be constructed for Sivaji Ganesan and the statue at Marina beach would be shifted to the memorial.
The government had also given an undertaking that the statue would be shifted to the memorial once construction was completed.
He said the statue may be shifted to the platform on the eastern side of Kamarajar Salai where other statues are located without in anyway interfering with the undertaking and without any obstruction to the free flow of traffic.
The petitioner also made representation on September 28 2016 and May 17 2017 to relocate the statue at the end of the platformon the eastern side of the Kamarajar Salai where a number of statues already been erected and now filed the present petition seeking to consider his representation.
He submitted that the association had already given a representation to relocate the statue from the junction of Kamarajar Salai and Dr Radhakrishnan Salai to the eastern side of Kamarajar Salai, wheree statues of other leaders and poets were located
The petitioner said that a number of statues of renowned leaders like Kamarajar, Ambedkar, Anna and MGR had been erected in a number of places all over the city.
He submitted that installing statues on open roads shall be a real tribute to the leaders, reminding people of their services.
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