Chennai: A DMK advocate has approached the Madras high court to direct the state government to replace the stone plaque containing the particulars and the name of former chief minister M. Karunanidhi beneath the statue of Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan, relocated to Sivaji Ganesan Mani Mandapam from Kamarajar Salai. Justice K. Ravichandrabaabu before whom the petition filed by advocate P. Karunanithi came up for hearing, ordered notice, returnable by two weeks, to the state government.
According to the petitioner, in recognition of the veteran actor of Tamil cinema Sivaji Ganesan, who made his mark in the film industry, a bronze iconic statue in the memory of thespian actor was unveiled on Kamarajar Salai near Marina by former chief minister M. Karunanidhi. Later, following an order of the court, it was relocated at Adyar. But to his shock and surprise, now the present government has made it very particular for some oblique reasons not to place the name plaque which found hitherto originally containing the name of Karunanidhi, who unveiled the statue during the erstwhile regime in 2006. The act of the present government in not placing the stone plaque containing the name of Karunanidhi explicitly reveals the political rift and further the government at present wants to take the appreciation and honour by opening the newly constructed Nadigar Thilgam Sivaji Ganesan Mani Mandapam by the utter disregard in ignoring to place the original stone plaque for the simple reason it contains the name of Karunanidhi. But the statue contains at the rear side a quotation of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in Tamil language, he alleged.
