Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday said that the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, which have not been given for the past few years, would be announced soon and a grand function would be organised to present the awards.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said this in the Assembly when DMK member and actor Vagai Chanderasekar (Velachery) raised the issue of non-distribution of the awards for the past five years. At the same time, she said the erstwhile DMK government (2006-11) had failed to announce the recipients of the State Police Awards for a few years and eventually the ceremony for this was conducted by her after she assumed office as Chief Minister.
When Mr. Chanderasekar appealed to the government not to shift the statue of actor Sivaji Ganesan from its present location on the Kamaraj Road near the Marina Beach, Ms. Jayalalithaa said it was not the government’s desire to move out the statue but the Madras High Court had ordered for its removal.
On Mr. Chanderasekar insistence that the statue should not be disturbed from its location, the Chief Minister recalled her announcement in the House on constructing a memorial for the legendary actor and said if the MLA could obtain orders from the court by filing a Public Interest Litigation, her government was willing let the statue remain on Kamarajar Road.
Explaining the issue later, when the DMK had staged a walk out, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that the erstwhile DMK regime had failed to obtain clarification from the Supreme Court on allowing the statue to remain there as well as to get a favourable order in the Madras High Court. Therefore, she said Mr. Chanderasekar could not suggest the government what needed to be done now.
Meanwhile, raising issues concerning his Velachery constituency, Mr. Chanderasekar said poisonous effluents were being let out into the Pallikaranai marshland and sought action to prevent it. Environment Minister K.C. Karuppannan said action was being taken. As for the menace of seemai karuvelam (an invasive species) trees, which Mr. Chanderasekar raised in the House with an anecdote, Public Works Department Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said works were on to estimate the extent of those trees near water bodies and weed them out.
