Indira Gandhi's statue will be installed in Chennai, says MP Saminathan

CHENNAI: State Minister for Tamil Development, Information and Publicity, MP Saminathan on Monday informed the Assembly that statues of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Rani Velu Nachiyar will be erected at various places in Tamil Nadu.

Replying to the debate on demand for grants, MP Saminathan said, "A statue of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Rani Velu Nachiyar, Marudhu Brothers and GD Naidu will be installed in Chennai, Tiruttani, Gandhi Mandapam campus, Sivaganga district and Coimbatore, respectively at a cost of Rs 50 lakh each."

He further informed that a statues will be installed for the former MP C Muthusamy and martyr V Nadimuthu Pillai, who were part of Cauvery Recovery Committee, Sir John Hubert Marshall, an English archaeologist who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928 and Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, a pioneer in the revival of Tamil printing press in various places in the state at a cost of Rs 50 lakh each.

"Immanuel Sekaran - fighter and civil rights activist, former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Writer Ki Rajanarayanan, Tamil scholar Mu Varadarajan, MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar - Indian actor, Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy' birth anniversaries will be celebrated as a Government festival in future. Press room in the Secretariat will be developed at a cost of Rs 16.75 lakh," he read in the Assembly.