CM MK Stalin announces two structures at Pasumpon
Chennai: Two days ahead of the Thevar Jayanthi celebrations, even as various top political party leaders were preparing for their travel to Pasumpon village in Ramanathapuram district on October 30 to pay homage to freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar at his memorial, Chief Minister M K Stalin announced the setting up of two structures in the memorial premises for the benefit of visitors.
Since huge crowds of admirers and VIPs visit the memorial of the leader on October 30, which marks his birth and death anniversaries, the government, which has been celebrating the occasion as an official event, would construct two waiting halls at both the entrances for the memorial, one at a cost of Rs 1,42,80,000 and the other at a cost of Rs 12,54,000, heeding to popular demand.
The new structures would provide shelter for the people from the scorching sun and rains and would come up as a permanent replacement to the temporary sheds and barricades that the government now erects every year ahead of October 30, Stalin said.
Making the announcement, Stalin recalled Muthuramalinga Thevar’s axiom, ‘nationalism and spirituality are my two eyes,' and said that he strove for the welfare of the oppressed people and fought against the British Government’s Criminal Tribes Act that imposed blanket restrictions on people in Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli districts.
Muthuramalinga Thevar mobilized forces for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army and was also heading the Forward Bloc in Tamil Nadu, he said.
Stalin would be among the VIPs visiting the memorial on Monday. This year, leaders from almost the entire political spectrum of Tamil Nadu are expected to pay homage at the memorial, particularly in view of the coming Lok Sabha elections.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami is planning to visit the memorial on the day though there has been some opposition to it in some quarters in view of their resentment over the sidelining of O Panneerselvam, who was actually assigned the responsibility of taking out the golden armour of Muthuramalingam Thevar from the bank locker as he was the party treasurer.
Now that the present treasurer of the party, Dindigul Srinivasan, had managed to get a court verdict in his favour – last year the armour was handled by the revenue officials – and even collected it from the bank on Wednesday to hand it over to the trustees of Muthuramalinga Thevar memorial in Pasumpon,the earlier dispute on the armour matter seemed to have been settled.
The 13 kg golden armour, donated by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, would adorn the statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar in the memorial during the annual jayanthi cum guru pooja celebrations. It would then be deposited in the bank locker.
Apart from the elaborate celebrations at Pasumpon, arrangements are also being made for leaders and well-wishers to garland the statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar in Chennai, located at the Nandanam junction facing the arterial Anna Salai on October 30.
Since most parties consider the votes of the people in that region, where the AIADMK had a sway during the time of Jayalalithaa, most of the leaders would be at Pasumpon. Each one of them have been allotted specific time slots to visit the memorial by the police in view of the tense situation that normally prevails there and to prevent clashes between workers of rival parties.
Apart from the State political leaders and others like V K Sasikala, the BJP is now said to be keen on capturing the imagination of Muthuramalinga Thevar’s admirers and are likely to bring in their national leader Nitin Gadkari to Pasumpon on the day.
The split in the AIADMK might also split the consolidated vote bank that the party had once, the BJP leaders feel and want to make inroads into the region. However, Palaniswami had been working hard to not let that vote bank slip out of his hands and had organized a series of meetings in the region, particularly the revival conference at Madurai, despite Panneerselvam's supporters not interested in backing him.
