The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has sought reports from the Coimbatore District Collector and the City Police Commissioner in response to a petition, which said that permission to install a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in the city continues to be denied.
The Collector and the Commissioner have been asked to furnish action taken reports on the matter to the NCSC within 15 days from the receipt of the notice. The petition was filed by activist and advocate N. Panneerselvam of Samooga Neethi Katchi (Social Justice Party).
Mr. Panneerselvam’s petition said the Corporation had passed a resolution on September 24, 2007, according permission for the installation of a life-size statue of the architect of the Indian Constitution in one of the traffic islands at Red Cross junction in the city. However, the City Police have been denying permission for the same, he alleged in the petition.
According to the petitioner, there is no statute of Ambedkar in public places in the city. One statue of the revolutionary leader is inside the campus of the Food Corporation of India at Coimbatore north and outsiders are allowed to garland it only on his birth and death anniversaries.
“While permission for the statue of Ambedkar stood denied, new life-size statues of former Chief Ministers J. Jayalalithaa and M.G. Ramachandran were installed alongside the existing statue of C.N. Annadurai on Avinashi Road in 2017 when the AIADMK was in power,” said Mr. Panneerselvam.
S. Balamurugan, national secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberty, said denying permission for the statue of Ambedkar while according permission for the installation of the statues of others across the country was nothing but “neo-untouchability”.
