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Showcause notice issued over Eelam memorial
Dec 16, 201311:36 PM
Tamil Nationalist Movement leader P Nedumaran has moved the Madras high court challenging the validity of a local body’s show-cause notice saying that a memorial built in memory of Mullivaikkal victims in Sri Lanka had been constructed in deviation of approved plan.
A division bench of Justice Satish Kumar Agnihotri and Justice K K Sasidharan, before which the petition of the 81-year-old leader came up for admission on Monday, adjourned it to Tuesday for further hearing.
Nedumaran said that the Mullivaikkal Ninaivu Mutram was built at Vilar village in Thanjavur district by the Ulaga Tamizhar Peramaippu Trust after obtaining due planning permission. It was meant to be a memorial for the “untold sufferings and miseries” of the Sri Lankan Tamils during the last phase of Eelam war in 2009, he said. The memorial was opened to public on November 6, and since then a large number of visitors from all over the world are visiting the place, he said.
On November 13, a portion of the compound wall of the memorial was razed by the panchayat authorities on the ground that it encroached upon public road. On November 14, it issued the impugned show-cause notice saying there were violations in the construction of the memorial in respect of the approved plan. The notice said the memorial had encroached on village panchayat street land too. It sought reply within seven days.
Noting that there was no deviation in the construction and that the notice had not been issued in terms of the relevant panchayat rules, Nedumaran sought interim stay of the operation of the notice. He wanted it to be quashed, too. - TOI
