PIL filed in SC against 'Pen Monument' for Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court against the proposed construction of 'Pen Monument' in honour of former chief minister M Karunanidhi's literary works.

The plea listed out ecological hazards and livelihood crisis fishermen would face if the monument comes up.

It sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to stop the construction.

The recently-held public hearing regarding the monument ended in ruckus as those who spoke against the monument were booed off.

Seeman in a statement said: "I will break the statue. If you (DMK) want to erect the 'Pen statue' in memory of Karunanidhi, you can do it in your party's head office Arivalayam," fanned tensions among NTK and DMK supporters.

The 42-metre-tall pen monument is proposed to be constructed 360 metres from the shoreline with a bridge linking the monument and the beach at Rs 80 crore. The proposed site falls under CRZ-1A, CRZ-II and CRZ-IVA areas and green signal has been given by the State-level authorities.