The decision on “promulgation of Tamil Nadu’s Puratchi Thalaivi Dr. Jayalalithaa Memorial Foundation Ordinance, 2019″ has been conveyed to the Tamil Nadu government, a home ministry official said.
The AIADMK supremo died in 2016 due to illness, following which the Tamil Nadu government announced construction of the memorial that later ran into controversy when DMK opposed the move.
The memorial is modelled on a phoenix with two lion statues at the entrance and surrounded by landscaped gardens. A museum will come up adjacent to the memorial.
While replying to the 2018 petition challenging the Jayalalithaa memorial, Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras High Court that the former chief minister was acquitted by the Supreme Court in the disproportionate assets case.
In February 2017, SC on an appeal against the Karnataka High Court verdict had abated the charges against Jayalalithaa in view of her death on December 5, 2016, and convicted others. The state government recalled the Supreme Court order and told the high court that Jayalalithaa was not a convict and hence, there was no bar on the government building a memorial for her.
DMK and AIADMK have been locked in a war of words over allotment of land for memorials of Jayalalithaa and former DMK patron and chief minister M Karunanidhi who died in 2018. While the AIADMK-led government had opposed the move to build the `50-crore memorial for Karunanidhi citing pending cases and challenging allocation of land at Marina beach due to coastal regulatory zone that bar any new construction within 500 metres of the high tide line, DMK MLAs had objected to a statue of another AIADMK leader, to come up at KK Nagar area of Madurai, cleared by the state government.
