Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the authorities to relocate the statue of South Indian thespian late Sivaji Ganesan from the present place (middle of the road on Kamarajar Salai junction) near Marina to the end of the platform on the eastern side of the Kamarajar Salai.
The petition filed by K. Chandrasekaran, president of Nadigarthilagam Sivaji Samooganala Peravai will come up for hearing shortly.
According to petitioner, Srinivasan filed a petition, challenging the erection of the statue of Sivaji Ganesan in the middle of Kamarajar Salai junction on the ground that it would be a hindrance to the free flow of traffic and it would also affect the view of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Marina beach. This court by an order dated January 23, 2014, held that the statue of Sivaji Ganesan erected in the middle of the road of Kamarajar Salai junction would affect the traffic flow and the view of vehicles passing through Dr Radhakrishnan Salai and directed to remove the statue from that place.
Subsequently, former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa had announced in the TN legislative assembly that a memorial would be constructed for Sivaji Ganesan and the statue would be shifted to the memorial. Immediately, petitioner gave a representation to the CM cell and other authorities requesting them to shift the statue at the end of the platform on the eastern side of the Kamarajar Salai, where a number of other renowned persons statues were already situated. Now the construction of Sivaji Ganesan memorial was almost completed and the same was likely to be opened at any time. But so far, the petitioner has not received any response from the authorities. There were no Sivaji Ganesan statue in Chennai city and shifting the statue to the memorial will not serve any purpose. Therefore, he filed the present petition, he added.
