Police plea HC to remove Sivaji Ganesan's statue

Chennai: Chennai Police has made a suggestion in the Madras High Court that the statue of veteran Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan be removed from Kamarajar Salai, as it had caused many road accidents, including fatal ones.

    
In his counter affidavit filed before the first bench of the Madras High Court, K Soundararajan, Addl. Dy Commissioner, Armed Reserve, also in-charge of ACP (Traffic), Mylapore, submitted that the presence of the statue badly affected the visibility of the motorists, who are intending to take right turn to Radhakrishnan Salai from Tamil Nadu Assembly.
    
Similarly, motorists coming from Radhakrishnan Salai and intending to take right turn to Santhome High Road also have a chance to hit the motorists, who are intending to take right turn to Radhakrishnan Salai from Kamarajar Salai as the square shaped traffic island of the statue measuring 14 x14 feet high was situated at the middle of the junction, he said.

After sun-set, the motorists cannot notice the movement of pedestrians, as the crossing point to help the pedestrians to go from east to west and vice versa is situated behind the statue, he said.
    
After 11 p.m. the signal will be put on automatic mode without any traffic cop to regulate. Because of this, the motorists tend to violate the signal and because of the obstruction of the view by the statue, a number of accidents had taken place at this junction, he contended.
    
Twelve accidents, including a fatal one, had taken place in 2012. In 2013, eight accidents had taken place so far. If the statue is removed, the motorists of Kamarajar Salai and Radhakrishnan Salai will get more space to take right turn, the ACP said and added that the statue can be shifted to a place on the beach side.

 When the matter came up today, the Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Samooha Nala Sanga Peravai, a society registered under the TN Societies Registration Act, wanted to implead itself as a party in the case. And the bench of Chief Justice RK Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan posted the matter for further hearing on December 13.
    
In his PIL, one PN Srinivasan prayed the court for a direction to remove the statue. After his death, one P Nagarajan pursued the case.