Requests received from ‘Chidambaranar Peravai’ to name Dr. Nanjappa Road and a bridge in Coimbatore after freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai will be taken to the attention of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, said Minister for Food and Civil Supplies R. Sakkarapani here on Sunday.
The organisation wanted V.O.C.’s name to be accorded to any of the flyovers already constructed, or a flyover which is to be constructed in future.
Repeating the announcement made by the Chief Minister in the Assembly on Friday, Mr. Sakkarapani said that a full-size statue of the freedom fighter will be installed in V.O.C. Park in Coimbatore. “V.O.C.’s birth anniversary is celebrated as a government function as the government wanted the present generation to know about his life and history,” said the Minister after paying respects to the freedom fighter at his memorial on the Coimbatore Central Prison campus on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary.
The Minister, Coimbatore south MLA Vanathi Srinivasan, Coimbatore District Collector G.S. Sameeran, Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara and jail authorities paid floral tribute to the portrait and the oil press which V.O.C. was forced to pull while lodged in Coimbatore Central Prison during the freedom struggle.
The Minister flagged off a bus with a photo exhibition portraying the life and history of V.O.C. The bus will be taken to schools and colleges for exhibition.
G. Shanmuga Sundaram, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Prisons, (Coimbatore range); G.B. Senthamaraikannan, Superintendent of Central Prison; A. Arumugam, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation; former Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy and former Singanallur MLA N. Karthik were present.
Leaders and members of different political parties and members of the public also paid respects to V.O.C. at the prison campus.
