The Salem Corporation has placed a worker under suspension for covering the statue of Tiruvalluvar with white cloth recently.
The statue is located in the Salem (North) Assembly Constituency near Old Bus Stand.
It had been covered by Santhakumar, a staff of the water supply wing of the civic body, after the model code of conduct came into force.
Complaints poured in from the pubic and political parties who demanded that the statue be uncovered. District Electoral Officer and Collector V. Sampath ordered the Revenue Divisional Officer, Tahsildar and Village Administrative Officer to uncover the statue.
The cloth was removed on March 14. As soon as the news of the statue being covered spread, several took to the social media to question the move: “Which political party did Tiruvalluvar belong to and why the Election Commission officials were not able to differentiate between statues of political leaders and that of Tiruvalluvar?” Even during a Q&A session on Twitter organised by the Chief Electoral Officer through his official handle @TNelectionsCEO on Wednesday, one of the participants had tweeted, “Tiruvalluvar belongs to which party? Can he influence the voters? Transfer the Salem Collector.”
( With inputs from Dennis S. Jesudasan in Chennai )
