Tamil Nadu PWD approaches Environmental Impact Assessment Authority over proposed 'pen' statue at sea
India Today
Tamil Nadu Public Works Department has approached the Environment impact assessment Authority with the proposal for the construction of 'Pen statue' dedicated to former DMK supremo M Karunanidhi.
The Public Works Department (PWD) of the Tamil Nadu government has approached the Environmental Impact Assessment Authority, which falls under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, with the proposal for the construction of 'Pen statue' dedicated to former DMK supremo M Karunanidhi.
Several environmentalists had raised concern over the proposed ‘pen’ statue honouring late DMK supremo M Karunanidhi. The statue will be a whopping 134 feet tall. It will be built 360 metres inside the sea and will be connected by a bridge from Karunanidhi memorial in Chennai.
Even as the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department approved the project, environmentalists had raised an alarm stating that the project would damage the coastal ecosystem.
Puvulagin Nanbargal, an NGO fighting for the protection of the environment, earlier stated that CRZ IV (A) only allows construction of memorials in exceptional cases and that the pen statue was not an exception.
The NGO also questioned as to why the pen statue should be constructed inside the sea when there is enough space at Kalaignar Memorial on the coast. The NGO further warned that the project would drastically impact the Chennai coastline in the coming decades.
Activist Nityanand Jayaram stated that if the statue is built, it would destroy the Chennai coast by a thousand cuts.
“The site chosen by the PWD falls on a very prime fishing ground upon which ten fishing villages survive. Karunanidhi should be memorialised the way Anna was by building libraries. It is unnecessary and if they want to build the pen statue, it should be built on land,” said Nityanand Jayaram.
