CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday turned the tables on the DMK with regard to the Madras High Court’s directive to shift the statue of the late actor, Sivaji Ganesan, on Kamarajar Road on beachfront to some other place.
Responding to a request made by actor Vagai Chandrasekar (DMK) that the State government should move the Supreme Court in this regard, Jayalalithaa recalled what happened way back in 2006 and virtually blamed the then DMK regime for failing to get a clarification on this issue from the SC.
Jayalalithaa said that when the DMK regime decided to unveil the statue on July 21, 2006, one Srinivasan filed a petition before the Madras High Court opposing the move and during the hearing, the court took cognisance of the DMK government’s assurance that any temporary or permanent structures which would hinder free flow of traffic would not be unveiled on key roads.
“Later, the DMK government filed a clarification petition before the Supreme Court. However, the apex court did not issue any clarification nor the government headed by M Karunanidhi took any steps to dispose of the case in favour of the government. As such, DMK member Vagai Chandrasekar is now not in a position to advise this government to seek a direction from the SC,” she added.
The Chief Minister also clarified that shifting the statue of Sivaji Ganesan was not the intention of the State government. “It is the directive of the High Court that the statue had to be removed from the present place and the court had been reiterating this directive time and again. The government had assured the court that the statue would be shifted when the memorial for Sivaji Ganesan was ready.
When Chandrasekar reiterated that it would be appropriate that the statue remained at the present place and that the government should move the SC in this regard, the Chief Minister said the DMK member seemed to be ignorant about the legal process. “Let Chandrasekar file a public interest litigation before the HC and if he gets the order for keeping the statue in the same place, we are ready to implement it.”
Pending film awards will be presented at grand function soon: Jaya
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday announced in the Assembly that the pending awards to actors and technicians in the film industry would be presented at a grand function to be organised soon. Responding to the charge of Vagai Chandrasekar (DMK) that the film awards had not been presented during the past five years, the Chief Minister said “the member might not know that the previous DMK regime had failed to present police awards for three years and only after the AIADMK assumed office, the awards were presented at a mega function.” She also denied the remark of Chandrasekar that the awards for small screen actors and technicians were instituted only during the DMK regime. “Indeed, awards for small screen artistes were instituted only during the previous AIADMK regime headed by me”, she added.