BJP urges TN to implement Venugopal Commission recommendations

CHENNAI: BJP MLAs led by its floor leader S Nainar Nagendiran and former Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan on Tuesday met Chief Minister MK Stalin and urged the State government to implement the recommendations of Venugopal Commission.

"In the last two years, in the Kanniyakumari district, there has been communal tension and chaos. The prime reason for the tension is the construction of a place of worship close to another place of worship of a different religion. Venugopal Commission has recommended that places of worship should not be constructed close to other places of worship and given preventing communal riots in future, the recommendations of Venugopal commission should be implemented across the State," said Pon Radhakrishnan, while addressing the media in the Secretariat, after meeting the Chief Minister.

Venugopal Commission was constituted by late Chief Minister MG Ramachandran after the 1982 Mandaikadu communal riots. Ponnar said that similar to Venugopal Commission, the Travancore princely state too had a regulation for the construction of a place of worship near another worship.

"Before 1956, Kanniyakumari was under the Travancore princely State. The rule in the princely state was that if a new place of worship had to be constructed close to the existing place of worship and if there is any opposition they had to obtain permission from all levels of authorities. A similar rule should be established in the state for construction of new places of worship where if there is any opposition permission has to be obtained from the state government to construct the places of worship," said Pon Radhakrishnan, who also added that the Chief Minister patiently listened to their demands and responded positively.

The other two BJP MLAs, MR Gandhi and C Saraswathi presented demands related to their constituencies. "There is no Kendriya Vidyalaya school in Erode district and so I insisted the Chief Minister permit setting up one in Modakurichi constituency," Saraswathi said.