Tamil Nadu govt to garland Jayalalithaa statue on her birth anniversary

Chennai: Floral tributes will be paid to the statue of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on her birth anniversary that falls on February 24 on behalf of the State government, which will also maintain the statue inside the department of higher education premises on Kamaraj Road.

An official press release on Thursday clarified that since the statue and the premises were maintained by the State PWD, there was no scope for handing over the upkeep of the statue to any private individual or organization.

AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam had sought permission, on behalf of his party, to maintain the statue inside the higher education department premises.

The statue was installed in the premises during the previous AIADMK regime, which also passed an order on February 16, 2021, on garlanding the statue on her birth anniversaries.

The accepted practice was to garland statues of freedom fighters on their birth anniversaries and no statue put up by the government would be garlanded every day, the press release said.