ERODE: The DMK has announced that a new full-length bronze statue of 13th-century Kongunadu chieftain Kalingarayan will be erected at his birthplace, Vellode, on January 19.
The recent removal of another Kalingarayan statue in Vellode for road expansion upset certain communities and farmers. Kalingarayan, who built a check dam across the Bhavani River and constructed a 90 km canal about 750 years ago, is admired by the farmers of Erode district.
About 16,500 acres of agricultural lands are irrigated by the 90-kilometre-long Kalingarayan Canal. As a tribute, the first statue of Kalingarayan was erected in his birthplace, Vellode, by farmers and people of his community on January 19, 2007. Every year, farmers and the people in Erode celebrate the 5th of the Tamil month of Thai as Kalingarayan Day. On that day, political parties, farmers outfits, and the public pay respect to his statue.
The statue of Kalingarayan, which was recently removed for road-widening work, has been placed in the nearby temple complex. However, the Kalingarayan Trust and farmers put forward a demand that Kalingarayan's statue should be immediately erected at an alternative location.
Some on social media pointed out that although the statues of leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, EVK Sampath, CN Annadurai and Periyar were removed for road projects, they have been reinstalled in suitable alternative locations.
Functionaries of the Kalingarayan Trust met with the Leader of the Opposition, Edappadi K Palaniswami, a few days ago and submitted a petition stating that their request for an alternative location to erect the Kalingarayan statue has not been fulfilled.
They also demanded the state government to erect the statue of Kalingarayan, at least, at Kalingarayan's House. Subsequently, EPS assured that appropriate steps would be taken to install the statue if the AIADMK came to power in the upcoming election.
Meanwhile, DMK's environment-wing secretary, Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, also wrote a letter to the Chief Minister regarding this matter on Sunday.
Subsequently, the DMK announced on Monday that his full-length statue will be installed in Vellode on January 19.
S Muthusamy, Minister and Erode South District Secretary of the DMK, said, "Chief Minister MK Stalin has instructed us to erect a full-size bronze statue of Kalingarayan. A suitable location has now been selected in Vellode for erecting his statue. The statue will be installed in a new building with a library at the new location by January 19. His statue will be unveiled on the 5th of Thai, the day the Kalingarayan Dam was dedicated."