HC notice to Madurai Collector on place to install Karunanidhi statue

The petition, filed by G. Thalapathi, district secretary of the DMK, Madurai, before Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, claimed that the erstwhile leader of his party served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011.

Moreover, Karunanidhi got the credit of holding the longest tenure as the Chief Minister with a total of 6,863 days in office. He was not only a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement, but also the 10-time president of the DMK. Furthermore, he personally won all elections in whichever constituency he contested. Karunanidhi breathed his last on August 7, 2018, at the age of 94.

Apart from being a politician, Karunanidhi was also a renowned writer and was bestowed ‘Raja Rajan’ award by Tamil University, Thanjavur, for his book Thenpandi Singam. Permitting to install the statue of the former Chief Minister would not only bring pride to the DMK, but also to the city of Madurai for honouring such a personality, who dedicated his life to the world of literature and politics.

Hence, on behalf of the party, it was decided to install his statue in Madurai and requested the Madurai Collector, the Commissioner of Police, Madurai City and the Commissioner of Madurai Corporation, in letters dated September 3, 2018, to fulfil the sole demand.

As there’s no action, a reminder letter dated December 6, 2019, was also forwarded to these respondents. But, even after such reminder, there’s no progress.

The respondents had permitted installation of a statue of another former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa near KK Nagar arch in Madurai, whereas the demand for installing the statue of the late Karunanidhi is pending for almost 15 months now, the petitioner argued.

Citing these, the petitioner sought the court to grant interim order directing the respondents to finalise the location for installing the statue of Karunanidhi. After hearing, the justice directed the Madurai Collector to determine the feasibility of providing a location for installing the statue in Madurai and posted the case for further hearing on January 2, 2020.